I woke up around 9:30 am, to the most beautiful view of Ovalle. The school and convent are on the top of a hill overlooking the city. The front of the school has tremendous arches that frame the windows and the view of the city.
After a quick breakfast I started working on loading up my pictures from the trip. Like Santiago, the house in Ovalle has Wi-Fi access. But you have to be in the perfect spot to get it. In this case, it seems to be right next to the house computer (which looks really silly) or in a wicker chair on the other side of the room. Anywhere else, you are out of luck. And today, I have an even bigger technical problem, which I will tell you about later.
At 11:00, Sr. Lucia took me and Sr. John Marie through the convent, into the school and out to a courtyard where the entire school was assembled (standing) for the day’s events. (This SJVA is different than the one in Santiago, as it has co-ed student body.) There was a row of chairs set up for the teachers and guests, and the students stood behind us. When Sr. John Marie came down the stairs, the students began clapping.
Today’s events were to celebrate the students and their hard work. You could tell right away that this was meant to be a fun day for the students. Some of the teachers were dressed in the student’s uniforms, and the students were in their gym suits.
The day began with a prayer, and singing of the national anthem. Then there was a speech from the director of the school, followed by a poem written by one of the teachers to the students. Then there was an awards ceremony for each grade’s best students (grade by grade) followed by a very adorable presentation of gifts from the school’s youngest “kinder” students to the oldest students. (The ENTIRE time (over an hour), the student body stood patiently…amazing).
Then the fun began. First, all the teachers went to the stage and sang the school song. They had fun with the song, with the male teachers singing loudly out of tune.
Then they had a teacher dressed up as rich man (I don’t know who he was supposed to be exactly) come to present some famous music performers to the students.
A van came up the driveway, and out comes “the band.” The students loved it…Here is a video of the performance.
The day continued with activities set up throughout the school. The students could play ping pong, basketball, watch a movie, go to the science lab, play chess, or dance.
I returned to the convent for lunch with Sr. John Marie, Sister Carolina, Sr. Victoria, Sr. Lucia and Fr. Marcello and one of the teachers that Sr. John Marie had worked with.
Later that afternoon, Sr. Carolina took me into the city of Ovalle and show me around. First we drove about 45 minutes out of the city to visit un tranque (a dam) de Paloma. On the way, we saw several wineries and avocado farms.
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| From Adventures in Chile |
El Tranque de Paloma was beautiful and very peaceful. Here’s a photo of me and Sr. Carolina.
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| From Adventures in Chile |
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| From Adventures in Chile |
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| From Adventures in Chile |
After that we went to La Feria (the market) where local vendors sold fruits and vegetables. The President of Chile had been there earlier in the day for its inauguration. The location was formerly a train station. After La Feria, we went to the supermarket and bought bread.
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The day ended with a nice bowl of soup and ham sandwich with Sr. Carolina and Sr. John Marie.
On the Day of the Student, I give myself a D+ in Spanish. At this point my problem is that that I need to learn how to congregate the verbs better, then I need a larger vocabulary to have an adult conversation and FINALLY I need a hearing aid or subtitles to follow along what people are saying. I hope my grades will improve with time.
As far as my technical problems…I forgot my camera charger in Santiago and my camera ran out of juice right after we visited el tranque. Unfortunately I can’t add any more photos to my blog, and I can’t take any more pictures until Thursday. (Sorry).
student's day reminds me of my old school in the philippines. we used to have the same thing. any interesting fruit that you've tried yet?
ReplyDeleteThey have manzanas (apples), naranjas (oranges), duraznos (peaches), paltas (avocados) all the same as what we have...the only thing different is the membrillo, which is apparently called a "quince" in English. It tastes like a cross between an apple and pear to me.
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