I craftily got out of a third day of parades by agreeing to participate in Independence Day activities at one of our smaller schools. I love this school because it is very creative and reminds me a lot of my elementary school (this is very unusual for Guatemala). At the school we had a mini-parade through the 300-yard long main-drag of the aldea and I was very impressed with the kids costumes. The theme was “taking care of the environment” and kids were dressed as gorillas, whales, lions, chicks, chopped down trees, and a giant pineapple. I can’t believe I forgot my camera, but hopefully the teachers will pass me the picture of me in the giant pineapple costume.
All of the parents came to see the kids perform skits about drunks, lip syncs, and a dance by the 4th graders to “Hotel, Motel, Holiday Inn,” I squirmed at the inappropriateness of the 4th graders’ choice of music, but I seemed to be the only one who noticed all the sexual innuendos in English. My talk on not throwing trash in the river and street fit in quite nicely with the program ;).
That evening, exhausted by such excitement, a huge lunch, and an never ending band-competition that the whole town came out to, I almost missed the piece-de-resistance of Independence Day. Everyone gathered at city hall to see yet another parade of students carrying flags, and sing yet again the national anthem, hymn of Central America, and song of Patzún. I was so proud of myself for knowing the first three words of the National Anthem and the whole song of Patzún that I almost didn’t notice the man atop the highest point of the highest tower of the Muni. But there he was, a soldier with no safety gear at all, holding the flag pole with one had and saluting the flag with the other, waiting to help lower the flag that they put up and take down once a year to celebrate the 15th. You’d think the architect would have thought of this minor snag in construction, but at least it made my night.
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