Here is the soccer field/volleyball court/parking lot of Instituto El Rey, decked out for the annual Culture Night in honor of Honduras' Indian heritage. There were an estimated 500 folks there from all over the River Valley, ready to enjoy the students' food, talent, and historical knowledge. Each class had to nominate a male-female pair of "Indios Bonitos", who then made costumes and studied Honduran Indian history to be ready for the trivia questions. At the end of the night, the judges chose the best two, who will carry the title until next year. It's sort of like a beauty pageant, but a lot more wholesome.
In between the Beautiful Indians' presentations, the students regaled us with all kinds of talents, from the latest raperro to folk dances to skits to praise songs in English to "Bombas", traditional Honduran comedic dialogues. And we kicked it off with a hymn to the Indian hero Lempira, who for a time united many tribes against Spanish conquistadors before he was tricked and murdered.
It was a beautiful night, but not everthing was perfect. The electricity went off for about 45 minutes at the beginning, which apparently gave some lustful males (not our students) opportunity to grope some females. Which is not unusual (here or anywhere else, I suppose), but nonetheless sad.
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