Adolfo López Mateos Elementary
Igncio López Rayón Elementary school is located in Cerro Prieto community, of Ejido Ocampo.
As soon as children see Rocinante coming, they run to it, peeping-in looking for their letters and Ambassador Monarchs coming from United States and Canada! They continue enjoying breaktime, wishing it will go faster than normal, since they get anxious to receive their letters! They buy a snack while enjoying breaktime some minutes more.
Breaktime at all schools, whether Elementary, Middl,e or High level, lasts 30 minutes. Mostly moms are the ones selling snacks at breaktime for their own children at schools, but sometimes teachers themselves decide to “run the small business”, in order to get a small income for some of the schools’l needs/benefits. These funds help improve facilities like restroom maintainance, or paint for the facilities, but sometimes for a small fun trip for children to travel a little bit around to a place of interest in the nearest cities.
A snack varies its price from 1-2-3 pesos; it will rarely reach 5 pesos (5 pesos = $.25), unless it is a formal Mexican typical dish, like a Pozole or a Tacos Order, which children love, but which is not always available.
Once the basket with Ambassador Monarchs is taken of the car, they run to look to them, surround Estela walking with the basket hardly allowing her to walk, hardly stopping themselves from grabbing Ambassador Monarchs inside! When break is over students line up at the teachers’ order to get ready to go back to classes for 1.5 hours more to finish the day at school at 13:30 hrs!
Although it is December most children in this rather cold month still dress in fairly warm-weather clothes. January and February are coming and clothes will be not warm enough even when many layers are worn! Our schools and homes have no heating systems, but at home there is a wood-stove, but not at the schools!
Once at the classroom, all children want to be the ones coming to the front to point out information at the posters going over Monarchs life cycle from egg to Monarch, and to the photos showing different areas of forest conditions!
They shall recognize that the three flags shown at the front at the presentation during the visit to a school, represent the three countries where Monarchs live, and who share the responsibility of preserving Monarchs habitat: Canada, the United States and México.
Students are thrilled to write, draw, and decorate their letters of response to be brought back by their own Ambassador Monarchs to hundreds and hundreds of children in US and Canada. They find it hard to believe that the gifts brought by their Ambassador Monarchs from so far away came by plane to México city before they reach them here!
It is Thursday already, and many of these children are anxious for the weekend to come, since many of them will accompany their parents to work at the Sanctuaries, and will, most likely make some money on their own, while they take care of tourists’ cars, or even try to learn to be guides, guards, will sell souvenirs, etc.
On the way back, in a bright-sunny early afternoon, I enjoyed driving back down the mountains of El Rosario Sanctuaries, amazed to run into dozens of Monarchs flying around, nearly crashing onto Rocinante’s screen every time!
Estela Romero
Angangueo, Michoacán, México.
Butterflies Received
This school received Ambassador Butterflies from the following U.S. and Canadian Schools:
Sacred Heart Catholic School, Floresville, TX
Sacred Heart Catholic School, Floresville, TX
Seabrook Elementary, Seabrook, NH
Berchmans Academy, Grand Coteau, LA
Palm Elementary, Austin, TX
Alkali Creek Elementary, Billings, MT
Gill Saint Bernard's School, Gladstone, NJ
Saint Joseph Catholic School, Athens, GA
Dean Luce Elementary, Canton, MA
Twin Branch Elementary, Mishawaka, IN
Saint Thomas Aqiuinas School, Indianapolis, IN
Highland Ranch Elementary, San Diego, CA
Lang Ranch Elementary, Thousands Oaks, CA
Randolph Elementary, Crozier, VA
Cool Spring Elementary, Leesburg, VA
Saint Paul's School, Clear Water, FL
Saint Paul's School, Clear Water, FL
Egypt Lake Elementary, Tampa, FL
Union Cross Elementary, Kernersville, NC
Green Valley School, Boone, NC
Hillcrest Primary School, Shawano, WI
Brooklyn Elementary, Brooklyn, WI
Brooklyn Elementary, Brooklyn, WI
Brooklyn Elementary, Brooklyn, WI
Keysor Elementary, Kirkwood, MO
Keysor Elementary, Kirkwood, MO
Keysor Elementary, Kirkwood, MO
Keysor Elementary, Kirkwood, MO
Pierremont Elementary, Manchester, MO
Eisenhower School, Dubuque, IA
Eisenhower School, Dubuque, IA
Eisenhower School, Dubuque, IA
Saint Paul's Lutheran School, Waverly, IA
Clive Learning Academy, Windsor Heights, IA
Clive Learning Academy, Windsor Heights, IA
Temple Christian Academy, Moline, IL
Temple Christian Academy, Moline, IL
Temple Christian Academy, Moline, IL
Temple Christian Academy, Moline, IL
Temple Christian Academy, Moline, IL
Temple Christian Academy, Moline, IL
Riverside Elementary, Columbia, TN
Riverside Elementary, Columbia, TN
Riverside Elementary, Columbia, TN
Riverside Elementary, Columbia, TN
Creative Learning Homeschool, Knoxville, TN
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