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Home  >  Colombia • Education • Medellin  >  Spirit Week, Catholic Style
ColombiaEducationMedellin

Spirit Week, Catholic Style

Allison Sherman Posted onFebruary 7, 2019February 7, 2019 Comments are off 1538 Views

Continuing our theme of “Adventures in Catholic School”, the kids recently had some great fun at their school Santa Maria del Rosario. Full disclosure: this happened in September, but I am just now getting around to finishing this blog post about it. #DontJudgeMe #ImBusy #NotReally

I saw on the school calendar “Rosarista Week”. I really couldn’t translate that so well, other than assuming it was some Catholic thing. Maybe a week of rubbing small beads while praying? I dunno. I approached it with my usual sense of “Well, let’s just see how this plays out.” Jamie’s kids were at the same school so I had good company during this time.

What I didn’t know was… Rosarista Week is SPIRIT WEEK! Yes! Spirit Week at Catholic School! How fun is this!? Gimme a J! Gimme an E! Gimme an S-U-S!!!

Whistling for Jesus

The first day of Rosarista Week I received text messages from both Haley and Zoe. 

Zoe: OMG Mom the entire 10th grade has been given whistles. PLEASE, can I buy one?

 Haley: OMG Mom the entire 10th grade has been given whistles. PLEASE, can I come home?

Yeah, our kids could not be more different if they tried. Whistles, a dance party, a talent show, a pep rally, and science experiments involving massive amounts of corn starch. It was all going down during Spirit Week.

The Zoe Talent Show

One day they had a school-wide talent show. I knew it was coming because there was a lot of dance practicing in the house, as well as a burning need to go to the mall and buy an entirely white outfit. Zoe got a good life lesson on why stores don’t sell white leggings. They don’t look good on anyone, even 12 year old girls. White jeans will have to do!

Zoe in white during the dance with her friends.

Jamie was nice enough to accompany me to the talent show even though her kids were not subjecting their fellow classmates to their talents. It was not selfless on Jamie’s part, however. The show served an excellent distraction from her pending dental appointment later that day. The talent show was juried but the bar was pretty low. No matter, we were entertained.

Zoe had three acts. First she sang in English while playing her ukulele. Later she sang in Spanish while her friends backed her up on the band. Finally she and her friends did a dance they choreographed themselves. If Zoe had been able to come up with any more things to do she would have done them. Haley was the supportive sister and cheered her on during the performances.

Zoe singing in English. Thanks to the dude who was the human mike stand. #MVP

Water Day 

Another day was all about the agua. Water slides, hoses, squirt guns, and sledding down a dirt hill were on the agenda. Thankfully the school had been very clear that the kids should wear something that can get wet AND bring a change of clothes. The niñas were prepared, except for the towel part, which they forgot. However, no problem. Rappi the delivery service, was happy to take towels up to the school for us for the eye-watering price of $2. #NotATypo

The Grand Finale: Family Day

The final day of Rosarista Week was Family Day at the school. Think “School Carnival on a Sunday”. A few weeks prior, both Jamie and I received letters from the school. We had been hand-picked and asked to donate gifts, which, if you read between the lines, it means “gift baskets”. Yeah, the school staff are no dummies. They could sense PTA moms in Jamie and me.

Doing a lot of research with my Spanish teacher and Taxi Driver Bryan, Jamie and I learned that our version of gift baskets was the same as Colombia’s. They even have a special name for it that is not in the dictionary: anchetas. How fun is that!!!??? It’s not often that Spanish has a more specific word than English but they do for gift baskets.

Jamie went with the movie theme, including $30 in movie gift cards, and I did the cooking theme, including cake and cookie mixes, baking pans and fun kitchen supplies. We dropped them off at school one day and the cleaning lady gladly took them from us. We had visions of them ending up in the trunk of her car or the janitor’s closet. We had both worked very hard on these and we wanted them to go to an appreciative recipient! #ForTheChildren #NotReally

My basket with the baking theme. Thanks to Jamie for the awesome wrapping job.
Jamie’s A-DOR-A-BLE movie-themed gift basket.

Once we figured out the gift baskets, then came the challenge of the food item we were supposed to donate for the fundraiser. The parental group chat for our class, or what we could follow of it, talked about all the ingredients needed for a bocadillo. Sammiches? OK! We can do this!

Having both lived in Spain before, Jamie and I thought they were talking about this bocadillo.

Thinking we were making sammiches, Jamie and I did not understand why we were told to bring large blocks of soft cheese and some gelatin item. After a lot of discussion with Taxi Bryan, Jamie and I realized that they were talking about a different bocadillo than what we were used to. It was a cheese and jello type snack. We still didn’t understand it so we had Bryan take us to the store and buy the right ingredients we were asked to donate. We really didn’t understand how this snack was a good one to sell on a hot September day, but we did as we were told. After a few days, the cheese/jello snack plan was nixed by the smart mamas in the group. Because no one wants to buy hot, sweaty cheese that sat out for hours at the school carnival.

Colombia’s bocadillo. It looks pretty on Pinterest but after being outside in the heat for even a few minutes, it’ll get ugly.

Jamie and I watched the group chat like we watch a movie, trying to follow the discussion of the mamas. They finally settled on a different type of food (turns out it was a drink) that involved bringing in lemons. Jamie and I, being the Johnny-On-The-Spot kind of parents that we are, had already contributed the cheese and jello items so we took a pass on the lemon drink and pretended we didn’t read the group chat. #ConvenientlyIlliterate

Sixth grade ended up selling this lemon drink, which was delicious. It was such a good seller that 6th grade came in first for funds raised. Looks like a few mamas brought hot sweaty cheese/jello though. #nogracias

Family Day was so important, even the Gringo Husbands tagged along. Haley’s class worked hard on the haunted house (Casa Embrujada, which literally translates to House Bewitched), Zoe’s class sold the yummy drink and the meat on the stick guy made a killing until he ran out of food. Like, an hour after the day started. Epic fail, Meat Guy! Stock up next time!

We wandered around and checked out the vendors at the business fair, including lingerie. Because I love shopping for lingerie while chatting with my 12-year old daughter and her 30-year old cutie patootie English teacher. #NotReally

The PTA of the school advertised the vendors on Instagram.
Zoe thought we were going for the “scared” pose for this photo with Haley and Cameron in the business fair.

The sweet Directora Nun saw Jamie and I scoping out the raffle prizes, looking for our gift baskets. I saw mine but we didn’t see Jamie’s. The Directora told us that Jamie’s was SO GOOD that they raffled it off during the morning Mass, and it went to a family with a lot of kids who were thrilled that the gift cards would cover all of them to see a movie, which was a rare treat for them. Jamie and I did a secret high-5 that somehow, someway, we did something right. #TheRoyalWe #ItsAllAboutUs

House Bewitched

Our final act of support was to go through the haunted house put on by Haley’s class, which was so popular it had a 2-hour wait. We love Haley so much that we were willing to wait. Jamie and Dan and I all went through it and were impressed with the level of commitment from all the girls. Jamie emerged saying she was sure she now had Influenza A and head lice due to the girls screaming inches from our faces.

Haunted House this way!
They had these lovely, fancy printed tickets for the haunted house… at a Catholic School function! #WhoWouldJesusScare #WhyEnglish
I thought we were going for the surprised scared pose for this photo. #LikeMotherLikeDaughter

Haley stayed at the school for another 3 hours, screaming and writhing and playing the part of possessed… something or another?

Haley and her well-done wound. She had to take her own makeup because her skin is about 5 shades lighter than all of her classmates.
This is Haley playing her part in the haunted house, can’t you tell? I never figured out what she was supposed to be other than freaky.
All of the girls in Haley’s class, taking a break from the screamfest for a group photo.
This doll occupied the corner of Haley’s classroom for a week prior to the event and a month after. It’s a good thing Haley has overcome her fear of creepy dolls. A few years ago this would have sent her screaming from the room.

After that final act of Supportive Parent, we all left Haley to continue her writhing and screaming and we went to a lovely communal dinner with the Cates. Meat on the stick guy would have been impressed by our meal. We got home about the same time as Haley, having been picked up by Taxi Driver Extraordinaire Bryan. She was exhausted from all the people engagement, so after a long shower she went right to bed.

The school was gracious enough to cancel classes the following day. I think they knew that everyone was so exhausted from cheering for Jesus that no one could possibly make it to school. #NoSchoolForJesus

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