Happy Halloween!

Casa San Miguel, our home here in Colombia, is a large Spanish style home with large open patio over looking a beautiful yard and garden. When ever we have friends over the first comment they make is this is the perfect house for a party. So, early in September one of the other teachers in the school approached us and asked if we would be willing to host the annual Columbus School Staff Halloween Party. Not knowing what we were getting into we said sure and quickly forgot about it until the all school invitation was sent out announcing the event. Costumes were required to enter and a 10.000 peso (about $5.00) charge would be collected to help cover the cost of the Salsa band. This was our first clue this was going to be a bit bigger than we expected.

The day of the party we went out and purchased as many pumpkins as we could carry and began carving them. Around 4:00 four of our friends and the true party planners arrived to help decorate the house and patio. It took about an hour and lots of balloons, jack-o-lanterns, dry ice and several packages of cotton cobwebs to transform our home into a haunted house. Then Daisy, Carlos, Carolina, and Jose left to get ready and we began to prepare our costumes.

Sean was the perfect American tourist, with terrible fashion (unfortunately wearing clothing he already had in his closet), camera around his neck, and maps and guide books sticking out of every pocket. Heather was a terrifying sight to any teacher on the weekend- a Columbus School Student. Wearing the school PE uniform, every piece of jewelry she owned, lots of make up, and headphones in her ears she was a dead ringer for a Colombian high school student.

At 9:00 the first cars started arriving. Just to give you some perspective on the event let us tell you a bit about the Columbus school staff. There are about 160 teachers in the school that is subdivided into four smaller schools. Half of the teachers are Colombian and the other half are North American. The four schools hardly ever integrate and it is rare for Colombian teachers and American teachers to socialize together because of the language barrier. So, you are lucky to see about an eighth of the school staff regularly. Because we are in two different schools we have a bit of an advantage and know about a quarter of the staff by sight. Now remember when we do see these teachers they are in professional wear and look about the same every day. But today is not a normal day, it is Halloween. As people unfold themselves from packed cars and start hugging and kissing us (typical Colombian greeting) all that is going through our heads is: Who are these people?

We begin to relax as we recognize more people. (But that is only about one in four of the people arriving.) After around 60 people have poured into our house and back patio the band arrives. It is a 10 member salsa band; three singers, flute player, several percussionists, keyboardist, xylophonist, and guitar player. They set up on a corner of the patio and begin to play. They are fabulous playing a blend of known salsa hits and some of their own compositions. Dancing, laughing and socializing takes over and we realize this is a great way to get to know the people we work with. (Hopefully, we will recognize them on Monday.)

At around 5:30am the last car is pulling out of the driveway, the sun is coming up, and we are filling up garbage bags. It takes about an hour to clean up and we crawl into bed at almost 7:00 am. A great night, lots of fun, and now three hours of sleep before we wake up and catch the bus up the mountain to a friends house for a day of lounging in front of the TV and watching American Football on the satellite.