Year-end Celebration for Paso a Paso

December 2nd, marked the end of the school year for Paso a Paso and it also marked the end of vacation school during the month of November. The school year in Guatemala runs from January to October, so every year Paso a Paso hosts a vacation school to help parents out and keep their children occupied during the day for part of their break period.

Check out photos from the event by clicking here.

During the celebration to end the year, we had fun, danced, congratulated some big accomplishments, shared a meal, and had a Christmas surprise for the kids.

We celebrated with the kids the end of another great year for Paso a Paso. Which involved celebrating 3 Paso a Paso children--Rocio, Flor Maria, and Darwin--that have completed primary school (the equivalent of grade school (years K-5) in the states) and will be attending Basico (equivalent of middle school (years 6-8) in the states) next year. This is a huge accomplishment for a child in Guatemala and an even bigger accomplishment for a child living in an indigenous community like San Antonio. These children are a shining example for the younger children at Paso a Paso and provide the teachers and myself with hope of a better tomorrow for Guatemala--one "paso" ("step") at a time.

Check out photos from the event by clicking here. 

We also had our dancing competition between the three groups. Throughout the vacation school each of the groups had been working diligently to secretly prepare a song and dance. The teachers and groups ended up going above and beyond and the competition ended up involving synchronized dancing, a donkey, and even snow(!).

I was quite honored with the opportunity to judge the competition and after much delaying and deliberation it was up to me to finally choose the winner. And Sonia's group ended up taking home the prize for being just a hair more enthusiastic in their dancing than the other groups--the prize of bragging rights and an ice cream cone.

Then at the end of our time together we celebrated the December birthdays with their birthday bags and a song. And then we had a little Christmas gifts for all the children.

Rodolfo el Reno (Rudolph the Reindeer) sang by Paso a Paso during the year-end celebration.

  This post also appeared on GuidedSteps.org