September 15, Guatemala celebrated her 203rd year of independence!
This has quickly become one of my favorite times of the year here. See, it’s not just the nation’s independence that is celebrated, but the culture and heritage of mayan and ladino populations alike!
Our homes have three main celebration days which our staff enthusiastically prepare for for months! They find local sponsors who help donate food or money for the kids’ celebrations.
The first day of celebrations is the Election– imagine a pageant where each home is represented by a contestant.
The team goes nuts with this!
At opening ceremonies, Checha led the Pledge of allegiance, and all hands were over hearts during the singing of the national anthem.
The nannies and team spend weeks helping their contestant learn their sport and talent, and to prepare their outfits.
This year our fierce competitors were the elite of Swimming, Fencing, American Football, and in honor of Guatemala’s first olympic gold medal this year, Shooting!
Each contestant came up front and demonstrated their skill and outfit before the judges.
Our returning judges include our local lab expert and the kid’s pediatric gastroenterologist.
Both have known the kids for many years, and are invested in their medical care.
Giovanni has made house calls for blood draws for over a decade. It’s pretty special when your local lab knows your kids by name!
Dra Vivar greeted several of the kids she has known over the years, as she makes a point to keep updated on them even when things are going well.
Not just the contestants have special cloths– every child brings their best and the caregivers go all out in preparing them all!
Ok… but Cesar’s mustache!!!
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Particularly special to me is how welcoming our community is for us to celebrate with them. If we foreigners have our own traditional cloths, all the better.
If not, there are piles of traditional cloths each of our team bring in to share with whoever might be lacking.
Over the years I’ve felt a little like a babydoll being dressed up and fussed over by my incredible friends who love sharing their culture with me.
The kids get excited too at our matching cloths!
When the Election has finished, the kids finally get what they’ve been waiting for! FOOD!!!
What so many photos failed to capture are the incredible performances each home’s staff did. Each home chose a famous legend of Guatemala and their staff portrayed this with narration, outfits, props, and sooo much enthusiasm.
Also not shown is each home’s dance performed with staff and kids alike!
Day 2 of celebrating was the mercadito!
This little market feels a lot like a church potluck in the midwest! Except everyone was bring their own family recipe of traditional Guatemalan dishes.
Humberto may eat by his g-tube, but he sure enjoyed a little guacamole on his tongue!
I’m afraid I took more time eating that catching photos on day 2 of celebrations!
Day three is most certainly our loudest day of celebrating!
Day three is our antorcha– our very own special needs torch run through town!
A torch run is integral in celebragin Guatemala’s independance.
Every year, on the night of September 14th, a symbolic torch of independence arrives from Guatemala to the capital of Costa Rica.
This is to commemorate the arrival of news of independence via the messenger from Guatemala in 1821.
So across the countries schools and communities replicate this in thousands of smaller runs.
This is particularly special in our town because some 10 years ago, it was like any other rural town in Guatemala– kids with special needs were hidden away!
Now however, our town receives them and celebrates their torch run with cheering and waves!
It’s been an absolute privilege to watch this growth over the years! I celebrate this community who celebrates children with special needs!
And so passes Guatemala’s slowest torch run!
