(Disclaimer: This blog was started about two months ago and just now is being published. My bad)
Lately the schools that I work with have been taking up more and more of my time. This is a good thing. I really enjoy working with the kids and they seem to enjoy it also. There are always the constant reminders that I am working with 15 year old kids--for example, they decided that they wanted to work on the garden at 5 am one morning. I show up at 5, wait until 5:30 head home and then come back to find them working away at 7. They of course tell me that they were there right at 5 and when I explain I was there it suddenly becomes 5:30 and then when I say I was there till 5:30, it becomes 5:35. Maybe the time frame is more of a chapin issue than a 15 year old kid issue.
Anyways, it is going well and at the end of the week, they invited me to join in a celebration of the anniversary of their school. They mentioned torches, but not many other details. I show up Friday at 5 and we begin to walk out of town, about 3 miles where everyone convenes. We have all the kids (about 90 or so), teachers, various members of the community and all the recent alumni there for the social aspect. A truck with a generator, amp and two enormous speakers blasts ranchero and banda music, along with the classic "What is Love" from SNL fame. This noise is also competing with the school band and all of the students chanting, talking, yelling, etc. And of course the torches. It seems that the school has a tradition of having the kids construct torches with empty cans tied to a stick and then filled with diesel soaked rags. Keep in mind this is a school sponsored event so safety is top priority.
The banner of the school, specifically the secondary school. The school itself has been around for some 40 years or so, but the secondary school has only been here for about 7 years according to the teachers.
Lynch mob? Luckily no, the gringo lives to see another day. This is where we all met up to start the march back to town.
Here one of the students, Lester, reignites his antorcha. Yes, that is a water bottle filled with diesel fuel. The other student behind him was helping to light another torch before this when I noticed that his hand was soaked in diesel, which seemed a bit dangerous to me but he didn't seem too worried about it when I mentioned it.
The school band, part of the marching brigade to town.
A view of most of the torches from a hillside.
Good times with diesel fueled fire.
