June 1st marks Children’s Day here in Mozambique, and since I help out at a local pre-school it ended up being a pretty fun day. Every major holiday (women’s day, children’s day, any sort of government official visiting) is accompanied by a parade to the praza where important people make political speeches and they have dancing and singing. So, on Children’s Day I met with the kids at the newly built pre-school and we walked about one mile to the praza. My thoughts were that it would be chaotic and crazy and we would be chasing 3 year olds all over the road. My worries were way below standards. In actuality there were 38 three year olds, and they all got a balloon and whistle before leaving for the walk so not only were we yanking kids out of the road, but we also had kids chasing balloons into the road, super-annoying whistling, popping balloons and kids chewing on the remains. It was out of control, typical Mozambican style. Luckily we arrived at the praza late so we only had to keep the kids quiet through one speech and then we got to see all the dancing groups, including our own preschool showing off their English and singing skills.
Then it was time to head back to the preschool grounds. At this point the kids were so worn out and tired that there was no way they were making the walk back. They wouldn’t even sing some of their favorite songs. They ended up arranging a chapa to take us all back. I think that this 5 minute trip gave me the new chapa-record: 38 children and 6 adults. I had 2 kids on my lap and had to keep the kids next to me from shoving and biting each other because they were squished. Bottom-line it was hysterical.
It was great because it also marked the day that the pre-school is officially at its new location, all ready to go. It is amazing to see it go from a flat, barren piece of land to a fenced-in play ground with a building for eating and classes, a teeter-toter (another amazingly dangerous thing to let children play on here), and two sets of swings. Another building specifically for a classroom and an office are still to be built, but it really happened. It was done by a grant that the previous volunteer got, so it’s nice to see that the fruits of my labor here can actually result in something physical.
