today was the first day of the christmas plays! 3A, 3B, 4A, and 4B gave their performances, and it was absolutely hilarious. i missed the third graders, but i caught both of the 4th grade plays. it was a little difficult for me to understand exactly what was going on, but 4A's was about pirates, but mary and joseph and jesus were there. then they sang the 12 days of christmas. and when i say sang, i mean screamed. 4B i couldn't hear anything but it was something about the nativity and they kept introducing animals and people who were there at the birth. then they sang rudolph the red nosed reindeer.
one huge cultural difference that i realized after watching the plays is the topic of race. in each play, one of the three kings had his face painted black. i'm pretty sure that's extremely offensive in the U.S. and that an elementary school would never do that. but here it's not an issue at all. one of the kid's lines was even "i'm balthasar, i'm the blackest of the kings!" huh?!?! i'm not sure if they're racist here or if they just don't find it a problem, but it was very interesting. but there is no diversity here in granada, so it makes me wonder if they just don't take it as seriously as we do in the united states.
anyway, tomorrow i'm going to watch the 5th and 6th graders perform! one 6th grade class is singing all i want for christmas is you, and if it's anything like it was today, it won't be too pretty. after an especially bad run-through, the teacher turned to me with an exasperated expression and said "i'm not a wizard!!!" we'll see how they do!
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