Dia del Niñ@

Children’s Day! Celebrated in Paraguay to commemorate a battle in the War of the Triple Alliance back in the 19th century where the Paraguayans were being so badly beaten by the alliance of Brazil, Argentina and Uruguay that they had to resort to sending children, some 10 or 11 years old, in to fight. Because of their sacrifice, every year on this day, or really this week, Paraguayans celebrate Children’s Day. Everyone’s shocked to find out that we don’t have this holiday in the US. Maybe Hallmark should get on that.

Anyway, the celebration of this holiday is like many others, with cultural presentations of dances and poetry in the schools which have ceased to be interesting to me because it’s ALWAYS the same. Same songs, same kids, same dances. But, on dia del niño the kids get the added benefit of a chocolatada, a chocolate milk festival. Milk is readily available here, and so is chocolate mix (like Quik but less chocolate-y), but it’s expensive, so for most kids it really is a treat to have a glass of chocolate milk. And this week they got to have lots – each school had a chocolatada on Tuesday, and today (Thursday) there was also a townwide chocolatada sponsored by a local baker. Also as part of children’s day/week, the central school for the past week has spent 2 hours of every day having a soccer tournament. While I’m happy to celebrate children, I can’t help but think that we could be educating them a bit more too.

Oh, but I did help educate them a little. I forgot. At the central school they invite people in to give charlas on topics such as children’s rights, and on Monday I did a little self-esteem lesson, four times over, with the entire school. We played a game, stand up if you know how to do x (ride a bike, speak guarani, wash dishes, etc), and then talked about how every one of us is unique with our own special abilities. I read a little homemade book about people who all know how to do different things, then the kids got to draw one thing that they’re good at. It took all freakin day but I hung the little papers up with string around the school with the title “Somos niños capazes”, which means we’re capable kids. Self-esteem is such a big issue here, maybe everywhere, so I was happy to be able to do a little activity to help them develop theirs.