Anniversario

So the other part of our meeting last night was to get the kids pumped up about anniversario del hogar (the anniversary of the founding of the home). But wait…I thought anniversario wasn’t until November?? Why get the kids excited about an event that’s still 6 weeks away???

Here at NPH we CLEARLY have a lot of random holidays, days off from school, bailes (dances), random competitions…you get the picture. So I’m at our meeting thinking…what could make anniversario any different? There will be some singing, some dancing, some organized contest and then we’ll call it a day, right?

SO WRONG.

It turns out that, as Carrie explained it to me, anniversario is basically a FULL ON, two-day “battle of the classes” style competition. Each of the kids, tios, and volunteers are assigned to a mixed team of random people (kids, locals, and volunteers all together per team, all the sections mixed up too.) Each team meets at least once a week for the 6 weeks leading up to the anniversario to prepare a team name, dances, chants, cheers, etc. to present during the two days of competitions. In addition, on the days of the actual anniversario, it’s basically just a huge boot camp with games consisting of: tug of war (I’ve heard it’s over a mud pit…jury’s still out on that one…), army crawling through obstacle courses, etc. Apparently it’s every kid at NPH’s favorite holiday – AND WHY WOULDN’T IT BE??? I’m pretty stoked for anniversario…although I guess it’s time to start the physical training!