We celebrated the Independence Day of Peru today.  As you may have seen on a previous post, the kids have been practicing a lot, six sessions of 2 hours over the past two weeks.  They were glad to finally show what they had been working on so hard.  We were at the Plaza de Armas at 8 AM, getting ready, making sure the uniforms fit well.  The kids marched after 11, so there was a lot of waiting.  I went to the hospital to see a patient in between the time the kids marched and it was my time to march with the hospital staff.  I think it is a story best told in pictures.  Click on the pictures below to see a slideshow of the parade.

The American members of the band with their director, Jorge, who is a great teacher.

David and Benjamin Wright, the drummers.

Annie, playing the lita (like a xylophone you can carry.)

Peter, trumpets.

David, drum core.

Mom and grandmother, taking pictures and talking while we await the start of the parade.

Can you see Sarah in the middle of that crowd?

Sarah is ready to go and slightly amused by her picture taking father.

David, having a good time with his friends.

Annie is all smiles while she waits in line.

Peter, thinking before the march.

The band leads the way on to the parade grounds.

The band plays for the crowd.

Up the hill, and around the block to play again. The first time they played was for the very young preschool and kindergarten kids while they marched. The second time was for the grade school kids.

Peter letting the horn do the talking.

Annie is keeping the tune.

Here comes the school, marching proudly.

Sarah brings up the rear of the girls line in great form.

Our kids feeling good after finishing their marching. Now lets go get some lunch.

Went to see this patient in between marching times. He has thrombocytopenia with platelets of zero, which means he cannot clot his blood effectively. When I first met him, he was bleeding from all his teeth, and he had these spots of blood underneath his skin. I gave blood yesterday to give to him to try and restore his ability to clot. When we tested my blood, it reacted poorly to his blood, so we had to look for other donors. We had success finding a compatible blood donor, and today his mouth was dry without any blood.

I am with Dr. John Washburn preparing for our trip down the parade line.

David is the only one in the family who came to watch me march.

The best view is often up in the tree!