The girls were getting ready for the celebration by cleaning up the handwashing station. Red is the school's color. Whenever there's a parade or school wide event, everyone wears red traje (or the traditional skirts, called corte, and the lacy, embroidered tops, called huipiles)
Anyone important in town usually gets an invitation to local events. We're not sure why but the kids seemed to be especially fond of this particular police officer.
Every important Guatemalan event has a a DJ, at least 4 GIANT speakers and a nice mixture of reggaetone and marimba songs blaring from the stage. 
Here come the flags! 
And absolutely NO ceremony is complete without some child or random adult milling around ON STANGE or a group of 3 kids playing hand-games on the front row or...a child swing repeatedly around a metal post to puntcuate the speaker's main points : ) 
And don't the random chucho (street dog) sunning himself next to the stage. At least he's not accompanying the new beauty queen down the runway to receive her crown like the last ceremony we went to! 
Whether you want to or not, as an invited guest, one must always be prepared with "words" for the crowd. It's always nice to throw in some jokes and wild hand gestures as well. 
The kindergartners did a dance to Twist and Shout. It was pretty cute! 
Some older students performed a traditional dance in traditional traje. 
Other students sang a song with their teacher. 
A little blond girl recited a poem.
A finally....The RIBBON CUTTING! Cristina got to cut the ribbon with the mayor, districtt superintendent and other members of the local government. It's tradition to give a little piece of the ribbon to special invited guests.
Cristina with the mayor. He's an incredible mayor because he actually uses the mnicipality's money to do infrastructure projects in the schools, help communities get new wells or pay trucks to pick up trash free of charge in the small outlying pueblos of his municipality. THAT is almost unheard of. We applaud you Miguel González Gómez.
And don't forget the unveiling of the plaque!
And of course, gotta get that face time with the mayor and his officials in front of the mural for a pic. They all have their official walking sticks and cowboy hats!
After a wonderful lunch here we are with the superintendent (left) and the school's principal.
A finally....The RIBBON CUTTING! Cristina got to cut the ribbon with the mayor, districtt superintendent and other members of the local government. It's tradition to give a little piece of the ribbon to special invited guests. 
Cristina with the mayor. He's an incredible mayor because he actually uses the mnicipality's money to do infrastructure projects in the schools, help communities get new wells or pay trucks to pick up trash free of charge in the small outlying pueblos of his municipality. THAT is almost unheard of. We applaud you Miguel González Gómez. 
And don't forget the unveiling of the plaque! 
And of course, gotta get that face time with the mayor and his officials in front of the mural for a pic. They all have their official walking sticks and cowboy hats! 
After a wonderful lunch here we are with the superintendent (left) and the school's principal. 
It was a great inauguration party!
I forgot to mention how upset we were at first when we found out that the hand-washing station-which slopes down to accomodate both older and younger students had the drain on the taller side. Not knowing much about installing the tubing and faucets and cement work, Cristina and I were none the less frustrated (I'll be honest, appalled) at the lack of foresight in putting the drain on the wrong side. Strangely enough the water somehow flippantly disregards the laws of physics and gravity (and other complex theories that say it should flow down) and flows back UP to the drain on the higher side.
Our panic and frustration were transformed into awe and relief (that we hadn't funded a failed project after all)!
And that's the story!
