Festival de Habilidades de Niñas, Niños, y Jovenes con Discapacidad

This afternoon, J. and I went to the 3rd annual Festival de Habilidades de Niñas, Niños y Jovenes con Discapacidad. It was an event to celebrate the abilities of children with disabilities. I've now spent a little time at two special needs schools in Cochabamba, and I've been very pleasantly surprised with the number of students in these programs. There is also a varied mix of children in the schools, and I like seeing kids from such different backgrounds all learning together.

The event started at 3pm with a brief introduction of the various organizations present. Other than J.'s school, I think there were 4 or 5 other schools or organizations that work with children with disabilities. Then, groups from the various schools performed songs and dances for the next 5 hours... it was a bit long!

I liked watching the different dances (many of them were traditional dances from different regions in Bolivia), but the music was really loud and J. was a bit overwhelmed at times. There was one song that she particularly enjoyed. She told me "I really like this song!," and she tried to sing along and clapped to the beat the whole time.

The event took place at the Plaza de las Banderas (Plaza of the Flags). There are flags from every country in North and South America. 

J.'s school gave her a special shirt to wear while at the event!

 J. trying on her teacher's hat

Clapping to her favorite song! 

One of J.'s teachers danced in a group, but before that, they let people come out and dance for fun, so J.'s teacher asked if J. could come out to dance with her!