Follow-up on decrees, holidays...

The Ministry of Education has responded to Academia Cotopaxi's request re. the modified school schedule, given the decree that came out in August. This was the compromise-
Nationally, schools are closed only  Dec. 24 and 25 and Dec. 31 and Jan. 1. Our school will close Dec. 24 through Jan. 1. This means that we have to make up Dec. 26, 27, and 28, by having school on 3 Saturdays. We had a PTO (Parent Teacher Organization) Brunch from 10am - 1pm on Sept. 29, which, with a little padding of the agenda, counted as one Sat. The other two Saturdays are Nov. 10 and Nov. 17. On the Nov. 10 weekend our school is hosting the Caribean Area International Schools Sports Association (CAISSA) volleyball tournament (including schools from Venezuela, Domincan Republic and Trinidad). So most of the classes will take place in the gym,  cheering on our teams. Sat., Nov 17 will be an academic day. November will be a looonnnngggg month, with school 6 days a week!!!
School will be in session Jan. 2, 3 and 4, but we do not expect many students to come then. Administration is in the process of surveying parents and teachers. There will be some creative grouping to cover for those teachers, including me, who will not make it in on those three days, due to prior committments (Sarah, Torsten, Kelly and Amelia are coming).

This unfortunate scheduling, but it is not all work and no play. We have just had a 4 day long weekend (which Ole and I spent at the beach - see next post) and we have a 3-day long weekend on Nov. 2 (All Souls' Day) - we'll probably go to the jungle for that one, and then a 4 day long weekend Dec. 6-9 (Quito Days).We may stay in town and see some bull-fighting or maybe head to Cuenca. There's lots of time to plan for that :)