Sunday, March 6, 2011

Kindergarten and Confetti

I spent this last week volunteering and learning in a kindergarten class with 16 or so rambunctious, adorable francophones. They picked up'head and shoulders' in English pretty quickly, and several were quite proud to show off their Dora-the-explorer-acquired words. I gave a little presentation with some Alaskan postcards, and I shared the children's book my Mom wrote with them. It was fun to share a story that I helped work on, and it was a good translation exercise for my french! I brought my qiviut scarf to help explain what in the world a musk ox is, which they loved petting. Northern lights, bears, and anything with horns other than a deer were completely alien for them, and their teacher was also quite curious. I wasn't expecting to, but I actually had a lot of fun painting, reading, playing hopscotch, and just talking with all the kids. I was a terrible arbitrator on the playground, as I often didn't understand the nature of the related dispute, but I was able to hold hands and kiss bonked foreheads without any difficulties. The week went by all too quickly.
This week is Carnaval---no school for a week and parties everywhere! Each town and village has its own carnaval at different times, even though it's supposed to be on Mardi Gras. This way everyone can go to more than one party! Carnaval means costumes for everyone, confetti, and parades. Plus alcohol, often. Yesterday was Kain's little carnaval parade, which started right in front of the house. Marianne, Eva (vet student), the dogs, and I all enjoyed a bird's eye view of the parade from the comfort of the bathroom window. Imagine Marianne's joy when they started doling out confetti right in her parking lot...It looked like it had snowed 30 minutes later!

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