Mother's Day Performance Part 2

It seems having made a concerted focus on getting back to regular blogging and of course an abundance of activity at present has made it much easier to do regular posts on the blog, in some ways it is difficult at the moment to put everything that is happening in words and pictures, for example last weekend was Ilo day (the anninversary of the Port) and everything came to a standstill to focus on the parades, parties and concerts that were held throughout the town. as you may have gathered by now nothing seems to be taken more seriously in Peru than festivals, parties and celebrations! The point of this blog however was not to write about Ilo Day, it was to finally post the video of the second part of Sarah's Mother's Day event. Of course I was keen to get this posted before the arrival of the baby as we will want to blog with photos as soon as he or she is born. So to not postpone the video anymore here it is below:

Instructions for viewing: If you click on play button and then press pause, meanwhile the video will be uploading (you can view progess on the timeline) once the video has uploaded press play and you will be able to watch it without any cuts or breaks in the play)

Pre-School Education Week

On our last blog post we shared some video (we hope to post the second part of the video soon) from Sarah's Birthday Party and Mothers' Day Presentations. In Peru you never have to wait too long for a reason to celebrate something. This week it is pre-school education week in Peru. At home this would possibly not mean very much but here in Peru it is taken quite seriously. All week there have been activities in the school and other events throughout the town. Yesterday there was a parade of all the pre-school children from the pre-schools through the town centre. Interestingly Sarah's school was one of the few pre-schools not to participate in this event; they had planned a week full of their own events. The program for her school was as follows:

• Monday a drawing competition for the school.
• Tuesday a singing competition.
• Wednesday a dancing competition.

• Thursday a visit to the Collosium to see the opening ceremony of the Junior Olympics.
• Friday a party to celebrate the end of Pre-school Education Week.

It is hard to know how Sarah got on in the drawing competition and how she will enjoy the Olympics tomorrow but she certainly threw herself into the singing. She was torn between singing Jesus Loves Me, Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star or I Love You, You Love Me (Barney and Friends) Eventually she decided she would sing in Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star. Her teacher was impressed that she stood up in front of all the pre-school 3 year olds, 4 year olds and 5 year olds, and of course we were very proud that she rose to the occasion.

Initially we did not recognise the emphasis that other parents would put on their children doing well in all the competitions, however after one of the parents asked us if Sarah would team up with her son for the dancing competition we soon realised how important it was to the parents. Josue came to practise a traditional Peruvian dance with Sarah three times before the real thing. Although the performance was purely an in-school event and we were not allowed to be there we were informed that she performed well, although later she did confess to us " I did the circles too fast!" (News just in: Sarah and her partner won the dance competition - fancy that, a girl from Ballymena winning a dance competition in Peru!)

I must admit that I don't ever remember having as much activity or as much fun at school as Sarah seems to be having, it would almost make me want to go through it all again! On a more serious note all the activity and excitment has been a very good way for us to get to know her teachers and other parents much better. We trust and pray that through Sarah and the people that she brings us in contact with that we will have more opportunities to share Christ with them.

The festivities really don't stop here in Peru, and this weekend is Ilo day (-think American Independence Day and St Patricks Day combined and you are beginning to imagine the scale of things!). Festivities for that will likely start this Friday and run right through the weekend. We have been told that it is virtually impossible to sleep (we need to get used to that again anyhow with the impending arrival of Murphy junior number two!) as there are constant fireworks and bangers throughout the weekend. No doubt Sarah and her classmates will have been practising something to present for Ilo Day! Oh and then of course Father's Day is just around the corner! I guess one thing is for sure - you will never get bored here!

Don't forget to check our blog again soon for the second part of the video from Sarah's Mother's Day performance!

Video Footage of Sarah

Click on the Blue Area Below to see Pictures of Sarah's Birthday and Her Mother's Day Celebration

In order to view the attached video footage doubl click on the blue area above. This will take you to the photobucket website where you will once again see the same image in a smaller version. Double click again and then it should begin streaming. When the video starts streaming put the player on pause until streaming has finished and the video should play smoothly.

Unfortunately we have not been able to upload both performances onto this one post so in a week I will upload the second half - Los Ratoncitos (The Little Mice)

Sarah's Busy Weekend

Saturday past was Sarah's third birthday. We had been planning to keep things pretty low profile this year after our experience of having a party in school last year. Considering her birthday fell on a Saturday we thought it would work fine and we would not get any pressure from teachers to have a party in school - we had not accounted for Sarah though! About a week and a half before her birthday Sarah told us she was going to have a big party in school just like last year so we quickly got on with the plans!

Our weekend began with a party (which of course we had to be present at) on Friday in school. There was the traditdional handing over of presents, food, music and dancing. Sarah was so excited by the whole event at times we thought we were going to have to calm her down! In the afternoon she was so excited it was difficult to get her settled for her afternoon nap.

On Saturday morning Sarah got up and was allowed to open her presents. She had already received her bicyclce from her aunts and granny and granda and was almost knocked off her feet when she walked into her playroom to see the Winnie the Pooh stickers which her grandma and grandpa had bought stuck to the wall. What a surprise! Mummy and Daddy had obviously been up late the previous night sticking the wall stickers on. After breakfast we started to prepare for another party. Trevor, Christine, Rebecca and Andrew had been invited for a small party with more music, cake and lots of excitement.

As Sunday was Mother's Day in Peru all the kids in the school had been practising for a special event for Mothers on the Saturday afternoon. Sarah was taking part in two pieces (see above video), one she was required to wear traditional Peruvian custume and do a traditional dance and the second piece which lasted a total of nine minutes involved her dressing up with her classmates as naughty mice! She marched, danced, walked, jumped and ran for the whole time and then if that was not enough she danced to all the pieces by the other children in the older class too. Needless to say she slept really well on Saturday night.

With Sunday being Mother's Day the weekend would not have been complete without another event. The church in Ite decided to put on a special event to celebrate Mother's Day, although it was a little more tame it certainly finished off a very busy weekend for Sarah.