El Dia de la Madre

Another Update from Salasaka – read on if you want to find out more about which Mum won the 'Madre del día' competition and whose egg could be balanced the longest on a spoon in your mouth!


What? Sounds like fun, and it most certainly was. 




On Friday, May 23, volunteers as well as kids and their families joined up at Escuela Katitawa to celebrate together the day of all mothers. What first seemed to be a foggy cold day turned out to become a splendid day of sunshine, which boosted not only the general mood but also helped to carry out the whole program as planned.




Before the official program started, volunteers and kids together danced the Macarena to welcome the visitors. The children were having so much fun dancing that we ended up dancing a little more.






After this little icebreaker, Rufino, headmaster of the school, opened the program with warm words of welcome and respect. He talked, both in Kichwa and Spanish, about what we have been doing at the school lately and introduced 
Marta from Spain who would 
charmingly led the audience through the program. 



After the words of welcome ended, Marta announced the first point: the goodbye-celebration of our eldest alumni, Wamari Masaquiza, as he is of age to enter the
 'colegio' by next year. 
We followed him through the process of passing on his duty as Katitawa's flag-bare to Kevin.




Following the flag procedure, all kids got together and sang the national anthem in both languages, with all their heart. Some volunteers did a good job in joining them, even though the Kichwa words still give us a hard time.


Later, Michael (France) and Ard (Netherlands) joined Renato and the kids with their guitars. They delighted the audience with a sample of various songs they practiced during school time and also showed off their skills on aerophones. 




Once they finished their last song every kid surprised its mother with a self-made card accompanied with flowers. Hugs and cuddles were distributed and the smiles on their faces warmed all our hearts.



Before ending the program with games brought up by each one of the volunteers, a very special competition took place on stage. Nitin from Spain prepared little paper sheets to be picked by every Mum; amongst many “Feliz día!” notes you had the chance to pick the ‘Madre del día’ with which you won the game. Raymi's mother turned out to be the lucky one and was presented a sash to wear for the rest of the day. We also prepared a present for our special ‘Madre del día’!


To finish the official part we decided to end it all with fun group games. Kids, mothers and volunteers lined up for wheelbarrow races. We crawled into sacks and jumped as fast as we could, trying to reach the other side before everybody else did. In the end we had an exciting showdown between Rufino and one of the mothers, which after a close race was won by Malko's Mum.





Eggs were balanced on spoons held with your mouth and, in pairs, we tried to transport them as fast as possible to the other side. Next to some broken eggs on the floor, a surprisingly large amount made it safe and sound across the line!









Kids danced to music around chairs, trying to get a seat once the music stops. When people started to slowly leave by mid-afternoon, empty stomachs were replaced with a big smile and music in their ears.

musical chairs photo musicalchairsgif_zps735d88a2.gif

By the time the sun came out, and everybody was catching their breath after dancing the “Baile de los tomates”, lunch was ready and we made our way down to the kitchen area. Parents and other family members had already prepared a rich 'almuerzo' which we all shared outside in a circle. For desert – and in order to celebrate the mothers once again – we all had delicious cake.

It was a beautiful day and we couldn't have wished for nicer weather. We are grateful for every person who contributed to the program and made this day a joyful day for the members of Escuela Katitawa! 

If you would like to watch a short video of the children preforming a dance 
for their mothers, press play below!





Blog by: Andi Keller & Agnes Pechlaner, Photos by: Andi Keller & Mary Knipfer

Comments