This past week was an exciting time for us at Baja Bible School as we shared the week with our first ever class of students. They spent their first week with Dave Burdette going over culture and spending a lot of time in the city learning from the people of Tijuana. So, in the theme of being learners and getting to know Mexican culture, we headed out to celebrate Mexico's Independence Day. It is a very celebrated event down here, and is celebrated on the 15th and 16th of September. We participated in the evening events on September 15th. This is the night that people gather in the city squares all over the country to participate in El Grito. This occurs at 11:00pm traditionally and is done in honor of the war heroes that were part of Mexico becoming independent from Spain. As El Grito begins (which is a shout), the president yells !VIVA! and then proceeds to go through a list of war heroes... !VIVA HILDALGO! and the crowd yells back !VIVA! This went on for a few minutes followed by three shouts of !VIVA MEXICO! Then there was music and shouting and fireworks and lots soap being sprayed out of cans :-) It was really cool to be there and celebrating with them. I have posted some pictures from our outing together, including the results of what happens when you get caught in the soap spraying festivities. (I really thought it was silly string at first, but very glad that it was soap :-)
Students and Staff celebrating and wearing the large Bigotes (mustaches) that they were selling on site (We were not the only group wearing these :-)
Being Sprayed
More Soap
The fireworks after El Grito were amazing
