Celebrate!

     I would like to take a moment to share some of the culture of Bolivia with everyone: Celebrate!  The people in Bolivia love to celebrate and they go big, and why not?  Every single person is celebrated throughout the year.  They celebrate the worker, children, students, teachers, families, mothers, fathers, firefighters, etc.  What a way to make everyone feel special, loved, and important!  These festivities usually involve a big celebration at the schools, in the streets, or in the plaza.

     More importantly, something to be taken away from the "celebrate" mentality, is to celebrate life!  How beautiful is that?!  Every day you wake up is another day to celebrate being alive!  The students at our school spend days making decorations, preparing dances and skits for these festivities.  So much time is spent preparing for these events and so much joy is taken from them.

     Most of my students and their families do not own a TV, a car, they don't have many toys.  A lot of them don't have a concrete floor or walls made of bricks, and yet they are rich in joy and love.  It's always amazing to see how freely they give their love to us, and how much love they put into their celebrations.  Below I have pictures from a few of the celebrations I have witnessed in the last few months.  Enjoy and remember to CELEBRATE!  

It doesn't matter how old or young you are, birthday's are
always a big celebration with family and friends.

We celebrated the founding of our school, San Francisco
Xavier, 50 years ago with the Provincial of the FMA's.

The Elementary students enjoyed a day off of
classes to celebrate "Día del Niño" (Day
of the Child) with field games.

The Feast of Mary Help of Christians.

This is the senior class.  Every class prepared a song for Mary
Help of Christians on her feast day.

Our secondary students prepared dances
to celebrate Mother's Day.

The senior class performed a dance to music
from Grease for Mother's Day.

The elementary students prepared dances for
their mothers as well.  This Kinder class
dressed as clowns!

The mothers also had games to play throughout the celebration.