Semana Santo (Holy Week) Part 1

On Wednesday there was an almuerzo(lunch) for the entire teaching/school staff, some parents and a few students.  It was a religious procession which included 4(copas) drinks of wine.  These 4 drinks followed the old testaments 'kind of passover', started with the exodus, then talking about the story of the bread and others which I cannot fully recall.(my spanish isn't perfect yet).  We sang 'church' songs in between each reading. After eating the Priest/Father asked for some responses about the whole luncheon.  Of course some parents stood up, some students were named to speak, and obviously some teachers.  Being the only gringo, yes I had to speak.  I am not really afraid of public speaking, but this sort of thing is hard to talk about in english, let alone in another language.  However, I did fine and stated that this is a good for a catholic school, and it helps us remember why we are here, in a catholic school and in the world.

The fun part was after, we all joined arms and the teachers/parents made a large circle around the circle of students who have locked arms as well, and danced.  Apparently this is like a Greek-like dance tradition, I don't really know, but that is what one of the teachers stated...  Anyway for those of you who know anything about dancing, we did a grapevine starting with just your right foot over your left, then finally right foot over left, left behind the right, and then the music and dancing picked up to a fast pace. Until some of the parents/teachers stopped and we all started clapping and the students were the only ones left in the middle dancing in the circle.  It was actually quite fun.

I didn't have classes today and was going to be late, so I forgot my camera(errr...).  However, I should have already known that I was not going to be late, they started about the usual 20-30 minutes late.  I am still not accustomed to this...

Tomorrow the students, I guess carry around a big cross for like 4 hours around the town.  I will not forget to bring my camera to that.