Photo credit: instagram and Esther Brunat
Panameño, Panameño
Panameño vida mia.
Yo quiero que tu me lleves
al "Tambor de la alegria".
(Tambor de Alegria)
After weeks of daily hearing this refrain sung to the beat of a bongo drum, Fiestas Patrias had finally arrived! Fiestas Patrias are Panama´s patriotic holidays, beginning the third of November and lasting the entire month.
At CCA, Fiestas Patrias is a mandatory school day (scheduled on a Saturday), transformed into an elementary-middle school assembly and family fun fair. The High Schoolers represent CCA by marching in a city-wide school parade starting in Casco Viejo.
The Spanish teachers did a phenomenal job preparing the students for their different roles in the History of Panama drama this year, and even the kindergarten kids sang their Panamanian anthems loud and proud. The sanctuary was filled until there was standing room only; it was truly a family affair.
From my vantage point, the most interesting part of the drama (done all in Spanish) involved several of my 8th grade students. The students donned these masks, like hay hanging in front of their faces, and reenacted a traditional, indigenous story about a woman and her children. It involved a lot of chanting and jumping around, and I think the 8th grade boys especially enjoyed this part.
Following the students^s talented performances, we hurried outside to set up our booths for the Family Fun Fair. From slingshots to bounce houses, there were several activities to occupy families on a warm Panama day.
The 7th grader`s booth = pie toss; total tickets earned = 120 tickets
The 6th grader`s booth = water balloon toss; total tickets earned = 420 tickets! The perfect game for a super sunny morning; plus parents had the opportunity to play and throw water balloons at their children.
Overall, it was a fun time, and things ran smoothly, even the clean up!
It was a great chance to see CCA families come together and be part of a fundraiser for our community outreach program.
After the Family Fun Fair, Mami (my housemate) and I headed downtown with a family from the school to see if we could catch a glimpse of the CCA high schoolers-teachers marching in the parade. It was quite the Panamanian experience!
Street vendors lined the sidewalks, their griddles laden with all sorts of meat on a stick or fried plantains. Families crowded the grassy medians, set up in lawn chairs or sitting on the curbs, and were decked in their proudest Panamanian colors or traditional wear. Little boys played jubilantly on toy drums or loudly blasted their trompetitas (whose sound was similar to that of a wounded duck) whenever someone walked by. And all around me was this strange popping noise.
It didn´t take me long to figure out that apparently the parade tradition was to throw what they call, cebollitas, or little white packages filled with gunpowder-something that exploded on impact, on the ground, and they sold them by the box-full to eager children, keeping them occupied during the long gaps between parade groups. Anybody and everybody could be part of the parade, even if just for a few minutes as you strolled down the street right in the middle of the procession.
Schools marched in the order that they were founded, and CCA founded in 1997, marched by us, just after we arrived. We cheered them on, as the weary students lifted their country flags a little bit higher. The students had arrived to the parade area at 8:30a, and were just now finishing the last leg of the parade around 4:00-4:30p. It was a very long day for them; they were great troopers.
Aside from CCA, I was amazed and encouraged by another Christian school, Panama Christian Academy, that chose to make their procession distinct from all the rest. They had several students at the front, playing a song on mini xylophones and three drummers (2 high school and 1 first grader) in the middle keeping the beat and entertaining all through a routine where they spun the drums around their neck. They followed this with rows of more students, who sung acapella the words to the song that had been played on the xylophones: Yo tengo un amigo que me ama. Me ama. Me ama. Yo tengo un amigo que me ama. Su nombre es Jesus.
Wow. There they were being a bold witness for Christ, and I could see the joy of who they were glorifying just radiate from their faces. I prayed a special prayer for Panama; that all would hear and believe that Jesus Christ is Lord and find in Him the hope and peace that our world is so desperately craving. That Christians in Panama would not be ashamed and would live distinctly, pointing people to Christ as the reason for their hope. And I prayed again for the students at Crossroads Christian Academy, where I teach, that they would come to know Christ deeper and fully believe they have a Friend that loves them, no matter what, and no matter where in the world they go.
No comments:
Post a Comment