Halloween

Teaching English isn't entirely about past participles, gerunds, articles, and conjugation drills—thank goodness! This October my Peace Corps site-mate and I rallied our English Clubs for the best Halloween party I have ever attended. My students knew of Halloween thanks to the abundance of American movies and Russian-dubbed MTV playing on their home televisions, so were eager to have their own just-like-America Halloween festivities. I made it clear that this wasn't something Lisa and I could magically make happen all on our own—we would need them to do a lot of planning and prep work. So, for 2 weeks leading up to the 31st, our students came after school to plan games, make decorations, and publicize our party.

I was biting my nails right up to the last minute—would Gulnar actually bring apples? would the PE coach suddenly need the gym for basketball? would Aigerim remember how to explain the mummy game in English?—but as soon as kids started to arrive in the gym all my planning anxiety flew away. Teenage coolness had prevented all but the bravest from donning costumes, but didn't get in the way of whole-hearted limbo bending, exuberant mummy wrapping, and full-faced apple bobbing!