Vive La Marguarite!

Yesterday at school, we celebrated one of St. Lucia's flower festivals, La Marguarite. The colors for La Marguarite are maroon, blue, violet, silver, and white. Students came to school dressed as queens, kings, princes, princesses, flower girls, doctors, nurses, policemen, governors, governors' wives, and flag bearers. The children in Preprimary through Grade 2 came to school in their outfits, which proved to make for quite the crazy day. (Note from the teacher: if the daily schedule is different AT ALL from the normal routine, children go crazy and do not listen very well.)
At 9 o'clock, we lined up to parade around the school's fields as we sang our La Marguarite songs. I was amazed at how many parents were there to take pictures of their kids and watch them parade around a field a few times. It's weird to know that there are a large number of pictures out there of adorable children dressed up so nicely, and then Teacher Abby all awkward in the background. Children waved flowers above their heads as they sang Creole songs. I had tried my best to learn these songs so I could sing along. I don't know how great my pronunciation was, but I sang loud and proud. It was already very hot by 9 o'clock, so after twenty-five minutes of parading, flower waving, and Creole song singing, we headed back to our classrooms.
Because it was a special day, not much was accomplished for the rest of the day. Next week, we celebrate Jounen Kweyol, a festival which celebrates the French/African dialect (Creole). On Wednesday, all of the students will put on a performance for the parents, so all the teachers are looking forward to another crazy day. I am getting quite the cultural education here!