As our last year in Indonesia unfolds before us, we are all taking time to savor each event with the friends and colleagues we've made here. This year's Halloween celebration was just that. From creating creative (and sometimes reused) Halloween costumes to carving pumpkins and trick-or-treating with our school friends and teacher kids, we had a great, though slightly ghoulish Halloween.
This year, the girls of the Langlands family garnered creativity for their costumes in great elementary literature. Mama dressed up as Ms. Frizzle from the
Magic School Bus series while Anouk was Thing #1 from a variety of Dr. Seuss books. The boys opted for a tougher/rougher edge and clad themselves as rockers with dark nail polish, fake tattoos, and heavy metal t-shirts--they had a rockin' good time!
The tradition at SIS is that during our morning homeroom period, the elementary students parade through the school halls and show off their costumes while Halloween music is pumped through the PA airwaves. The bigger students (and parents) cheer, take pictures, and support the wee ones as they march through the halls all clad as superheros, princesses, and cowboys.
After the parade, students enjoy small classroom parties and a day of Halloween-themed learning activities. Since Halloween is not really a holiday in Indonesia, teachers at SIS have had to organize a trick-or-treating activity for the kids. So... after school, the assistants guide students on a walk to teacher housing where teachers pass out candy during a guided trick-or-treating activity. This year's stash of candy included lollipops, full-sized snickers, seaweed, and Capri-Sun. It was remarkable to see how excited the kids were about, of all things, THE SEAWEED! We are certainly living in Asia.
Any chocolates poured out from the treat bag were immediately stuffed into the fridge in an attempt to retain their shape (damn heat). The kids asked for squid ink pasta and orange pasta sauce for dinner (in keeping with a ghoulish theme) and the teacher housing street was lit up by 6:30 pm with teacher kids roaming door-to-door on a quest for a few homemade treats (my neighbors are GREAT bakers).
It was a great day and we teachers will probably spend the next week recovering as our students try to hide candy in their lunch boxes for a midday treat. All in all it was a great way to celebrate our last Halloween in Indonesia.
Enjoy the photos.
