Thank God for Thick Curtains!

A few months ago, I was asked to be the madrina for Nancy's graduation. Before coming to Peru, I thought "godmothers" were only for baby dedications but learned last year that madrinas and padrinos also participate in weddings. This year, much to my surprise, I discovered there are also madrinas for high school graduations! I was honored to be the godmother for her graduation.

The trip out to Zapallal lasted 3 hours and involved 2 buses. Holiday traffic led to the extra hour of travel time. We arrived later than expected and I still needed to change into my dress and fix my hair. We traveled back the way we came with Nancy to the graduation location. Although the invitation stated 7pm as the time of the ceremony, 11pm was the actual start time!

There was a graduation class of about 50, separated in two groups, made obvious by the colors - pink and light blue. All the girls dress accordingly and some of the guys even joined in. There were no caps and gowns, no moving of the tassel. All of the teachers had a few words to say and some were welcomed by the cheers and clapping of the students. Each name was announced, followed by "what they want to be when they grow up" which included engineers, stewardesses, professional soccer players and accountants.

The dancing began with the students doing the waltz with their partners. Afterward each student invited one their guests to dance-including fathers, mothers and brothers. (Check out the picture of Nancy and her brother!) The meal was served shortly-to about one third of the guests! Once that part was nearly finished, they were done preparing the rest of the plates. Dinner, consisting of beef, French fries, salad and Inca Kola, was served at 2 - and that is AM not PM!!!! The students were invited to dance again to a variety of Reggaeton songs.

About 3am, we began to wonder if any bus would be running to head back into the city. Unfortunately, the only available bus leave us at an unsafe intersection waiting on another bus. We decided to wait until 5am when the other buses would begin running again. But, a bit of a scuffle broke out between one of the girls' fathers and a young graduating boy. Since there was a bus heading out of the city, we decided to take Nancy home and catch the bus from her house. The difficulty was that the bus had been specially contracted, but the contract was for 1am and the people who had paid had not left the party. The bus driver decided to fill the bus with other paying customers. The man who had paid had a few words to say when he realized it, but eventually gave up the bus to those who were already on it.

Just before 5am, we left Zapallal and headed back into the city. Since there was very few people on the road at that time, we arrived back to my apartment just over an hour later. Quite a difference from the 3 hour ride it took us to go to the graduation!! Fortunately I was able to sleep in quite a bit this morning, thanks to my terrific "blackout" curtains - especially since tonight will be another "all-nighter" for Christmas!

What a contrast from my high school graduation in June of 1991!