Noche de Luces

At our school, Noche de Luces (Night of Lights) is the event of the year.  All teachers are required to work at one post or another, and kids and teachers alike talk about how fun the thing is months in advance.  Last Wednesday, I finally got to experience it.

Annette and Joel and I arrived just after the doors were opened at 4pm and wandered around before the crowds arrived.  After we'd spent the previous Saturday in one of the poorest communities in the city, Annette commented to me, "It's hard not to see this as a huge waste of money.  But if you don't think about that, it's really pretty fun."  I think that sums it up well.  She's right; this event truly is a big deal.  My jaw kept dropping as we walked about.

Our entire basketball/volleyball/four-square court area and the small soccer field were covered with plastic tables and chairs.  There was a stage set up on the east end of the courts and a band was preparing to play.  Ringing the small soccer field was a food court comprised of probably 15 venues.  There were plenty of restaurant chains represented, but I think the most popular booth (among teachers, at least) was the Jewish Community’s tent serving up tasty falafel.  But there were also 2 sushi restaurants, Chinese food, Pollo Campero (Guatemala’s version of KFC), Subway, 2 coffee shops, a sandwich place, burgers, Korean food, and several other options.

Meandering away from the food court, though, we came to the carnival.  Oh. My. Goodness.

First of all, we saw that our gazebo had been turned into a princess palace.  Women dressed as the Disney princesses welcomed small girls in to put on princess dresses, have their hair and nails done, and get their pictures taken. 


Also in the carnival, we saw giant bouncy structures, actual carnival rides for small children, an inflatable bike-maze (I cannot explain it any other way), one of those bungee-bounce things, a rock climbing wall, those bubble-ball things (see picture) and…a zipline. 
Around every corner it seemed like there was another attraction.

Bike maze thing

Bungee bounce

The bubble-ball things

And a zipline.






































































In the auditorium, various artists performed songs and dances until 6pm. 

We got some food (mmm…falafel) and enjoyed the live music outside.  We greeted students right and left and mingled with other teachers.

At 7:30pm, the fireworks started.  I was behind the beverage counter selling drinks by that point, but I still had a pretty good view.



Our school definitely put on a good show.  The event was once again a success…and a great way to start off our winter break! 

Happy Holidays!  

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Cambodia: Reflections and Highlights

Image
I was really excited to visit Cambodia for a few days and hit up Angkor Wat and the other temples in the area.  Cambodia felt like my kind of adventure--and I can’t even really say why.  But I was excited.  I was excited for our hotel there--a full-out boutique hotel (not a hostel), with AC, a swimming pool, breakfast included, and airport pick-up for free--which cost us a scant $20 per night.  And we’d read about a lot of great tours we could take with local guides.  Flying in and flying out, this leg of the trip would be a breeze, and hopefully everything would be as cheap as the hotel.   The Mango Rain Boutique Hotel Our flight to Cambodia was unlike any other I’ve ever been on.  There were only about 20 of us on the flight--which would not have been strange, except it was, because we were on a full-size plane that could have seated 200.  The 20 of us were mostly grouped together towards the back of the plane.  Second impressive thing was that as soon as the plane got to al
Read more

DI Globals 2016: A Tale of Two Teams

Image
For the past 3 years, I have acted as a team manager for Destination Imagination at my school in Guatemala, and each year, my team has earned a trip to Global Finals in Knoxville, Tennessee.  This school year, I was blessed to manage the exact same team I had last year—the Aguaguates, the most wonderful group of kids any DI team manager could wish for.  This group, all 7 th graders this year, has everything needed to not only excel at DI, but also make a team manager’s job almost unnecessary.  They have amazing team chemistry, and they understand the importance of teamwork.  They’re crazy creative and hilarious and amazing actors when they get on stage.  They push themselves to improve their performances.  They know what they need to get done for DI, and they create their own practice schedules.  In short, they are a DI dream team, not to mention really, really great people .  This year though, I took one look at the school calendar and decided that if the team qualified for Glob
Read more

Yearly Update: The Journey to 30

Image
Over a year has passed since my last “update.”  And the year I was 29, despite the fact that I lived close to home rather than abroad, was anything but boring, so there’s no real reason for the lack of blog posts.   The year I was 29, I survived what may have been my most difficult year of teaching yet.  Many overseas teachers say, “Teaching in the States is so much different than teaching abroad.  You’ll see.  That’s why I went overseas; I’d never go back to teaching in the States.  It’s just...too much.”  Well, they’re not wrong.  I admit, I thought that with five years teaching experience under my belt, my first year in the US, my first year at the high school level, would go rather smoothly.  While in a sense it did (no concerns about the quality of my work from administration or complaints from parents), it was mentally and emotionally very taxing.  Even this year, my 2nd back in the States, I’m still adjusting to and coming to terms with the fact that as a US teacher, I wil
Read more