Sunday, May 27

Honoring our Host Country

This weekend we had an extended weekend due to the national holiday of the Pichincha Battle, which was decisive for the formation and establishment of Ecuador as a sovereign Nation.

As part of the official celebrations, the President of the Republic decreed that on this date, schools would hold the public acts of pledge of allegiance to the flag of Ecuador for the students in their last year of high school.

The ceremony at the Alliance Academy International, the school that André and Nicole attend to, was made with great solemnity. Besides the presence of the school's authorities, we also had the official representation of the Ecuadorian Armed Forces, through the branches of the Air Force and National Police.

The ceremony started with the entrance of all the flags representing all the Nations that are represented in the school's community. Nicole proudly took the flag of Portugal. We became aware that there 34 Nations represented at the school.

The ceremony continued with the students in their last year of high school pledging allegiance to the flag of Ecuador. They first did this collectively and than individually. For those students with a different nationality, they would simply bow before the flag in respect for the Nation of Ecuador instead of pledging their allegiance.

It was a beautiful ceremony in which, once again, we felt a high sense of patriotism in the South American nations. This same feeling we felt also previously in Argentina in the public acts celebrated in the schools.