back to school

yet another event that i dont have pictures for. and the ironc thing is... that i paused momentarily in the doorway, on my way out the door to school this morning. (that sounds weird for me, sounds like i am back in school...) i paused and thought about running back in to get my camera. but then hurried my way out without going back in, thinking that nah, today is just the first day back after vacation... the kids are going to be cranky to be back in class, and i dont really feel like taking pictures of cranky kids today.

so i didnt take it.

but today wasnt just a normal back to school day.

the 13th the catholic church celebrated the virgin mary. according to wikipedia the 13th of may is celebrated because it was the first day of many consecutive that the virgin was seen in Portugal at Fatima. We have a street (and i have a student) named Fatima. there was a celebration there also. But today although the 17th and not the 13th, (because we were all on vacation on the 13th) all of the 4 and 5 year olds took a trip to a local church to pray and sing songs to Mary.

i went along with everyone to see what was going on. i didnt really know to begin with. all i knew was that a couple of my english classes had been cancelled for a trip... so well.. i wanted to go on the trip! so i piled in a taxi with two other teachers and 8 children (thats when you choose your "favorite" class... when you have to get in a cramped taxi with a couple kids on your lap) and we went a few blocks to a small church actually near my house, that i didnt even know existed. they say it used to be a mormon church, i dont really know the story there, but it didnt really look like a catholic church. but we went in, the kids sang songs, told the virgin mary that they wanted to behave better or to bless their parents, laid some flowers by her statue then we filed back into our taxis and went back to school.

i was more an observer since ive never been in a catholic celebration. watching how the kids were acting, and seeing which teachers were really into it and which were just following the motions.

in the end one of the teachers said "blow a kiss to the virgin mary"... pause... then quickly added "and to Jesus"