Marching, Dancing, And Running

Independence Day in Guatemala is September 15. A big part of their celebration is school parades. In Jocotan where Cruz goes to school they do a parade with the younger school kids on the 14th and then the older kids march on the 15th.  This year the 14th fell on Sunday so Cruz's parade was Sunday afternoon.   Here he is before we left our house to go line up-

my sweet boy ready to march in the 2014 Independence Day parade in Jocotan, Guatemala

There were tons of people already there when we arrived.  You have to navigate your way through the crowds to find where your particular school is lining up.  It was chaos and I was happy when I spotted those maroon uniforms. 

some of Cruz's schoolmates getting ready to march in the parade

Here he is with his sash on. It represents the colors of the Guatemalan flag.

I think the noise and the crowds overwhelmed him quite a bit.  He would not let me get out of his sight.  I had already planned to walk along beside them, but I didn't expect him to be so clingy.

Isn't she a cutie!

The crowd up ahead as we started to march.

Cruz with a few of his classmates and his teacher Miss Milvia

Here's a video of them marching

More of Cruz's schoolmates.  Because I walked along beside them I only have pictures of his school marching.  I didn't get to see the other parts of the parade.

David and Ben however got to watch it all.  Here they are as we passed them.  Ben especially loved the bands. 

His school band stopping to perform

A short video of his school band-

                                         

Afterwards there was a patriotic program at the Central Park.  We stayed for just a bit and then slipped out.  We drove into town and ate supper at Pollo Campero.  The boys were super excited when we told them we were going there.

my boys in the ball pit at Pollo Campero in Chiquimula, Guatemala

chillin'

And here's a little video showing you our supper entertainment.  We like to keep music playing in our home and many times throughout the day we just stop and do a little dancing.  I'm thinking that maybe I need to start teaching my boys that dancing is only for at home, ha.

Every time I watch this I just laugh out loud.

Besides the parades another one of our favorite things about Independence Day is the torch runs.  All of the schools do runs on the 14th.  I wanted to drive into town so that we could see lots of them out running.  The boys thought it was very cool that the big kids got to run with fire.  

The students take turns running with the torch.  When not running they pile into the back of a truck and follow behind.  They are usually blaring music through a loud speaker, honking their horns, waving flags, and just having a festive time.  It looks like a lot of fun for them and I can imagine it's something they look forward to all year long.

They even run at night which to me seems so dangerous.  People line up down the streets to watch them though.  It's a big part of their holiday celebration.

This was Cruz's second year to participate in the activities with his school.  I love that he gets to be involved with it and I'm certain I'll miss it once we start to homeschool next fall.

I'll post about how we spent the Quince next.