Busy Weekends

As Peace Corps Volunteers we never really get weekends off. When we're
not actually at the school supervising student work days or coaching
our young activists or theater groups, then we're busy at church,
receiving visitors at our house or catching up on domestic chores. Our
first weekend back from vacation was particularly busy. We spent most
of Saturday at school for a PTA-type meeting with close to 150 people
stuffed into one classroom, three adults to a desk and people crowding
the windows and door to get a peek. Our school director talked about
our overall pass/fail rates, praising teachers with lots of passing
students, like Janet, and gently chastising teachers with fewer
passing students, like Luc. He also ceremoniously inaugurated our new
school well, donated by churches in Tennessee. The six-hour meeting
concluded with student grades. As a class director, Luc had to read
his students' marks off a poster-sized report card, using a yard stick
to keep track of individuals' grades across the huge sheet of paper.
Sunday we were at it again, with an all-day ordaination of a new
priest from our town. People had been practicing songs and dances for
weeks. The parish also built a stage in front of the church and a
large grass roof to shade the crowds for an outdoor mass. Priests came
from around the country and Portugal for the event. We got to sit in
actual pews in the section for special guests, something we were
grateful for after several hours of praying and singing. After the
celebration we were invited to a sumptuous feast where we ate at a
table with five Spanish missionaries and practiced speaking
embarrassing Spanish after a year of Portuguese. The meal ended with a
large, bible-shaped cake. The nuns tried to distribute some to the
masses of children watching us eat; unfortunately this degenerated
into a cake melée. Arriving home after this jam-packed weekend, we
just wanted to relax and enjoy the evening, so we put off planning the
school week until Monday, since neither of us teach that morning.