Big news! We had some winners in our family on Tuesday night, at a singing competition in the regional capital. Franco and Francisca were both competing, so we all drove to Temuco with one of the English teachers from our school, Viviana. Vivi is not my usual head teacher, because she works with the 5th, 6th, and 7th graders, but I have gotten a chance to visit several of her classes and talk with her a lot, and she is a good friend in the school! We got there early, and it started late, so there was a lot of time for them to wait around and get nervous. They couldn't sit still, so I took advantage of their energy to make them take a bunch of pictures (which also served as a nice distraction).
very anxious Panchi and Franco
me and Vivi
Because the woman in charge of the competition had only arranged for one other judge, I was called upon to judge the singers as well (based on my wide body of expertise in how to speak English). I voiced my concerns that it wouldn't be fair for me to judge, that it wasn't a good position for me to be in to judge my own siblings in a competition between only 7 contestants, but they wouldn't hear it. So I settled in with my folder to hear the performances! First was a little 5th grader, who did a wonderful job for being so nervous, and then Panchi was up! She did a fantastic job, as you can see in this video that I finally managed to upload (even though the first few seconds are missing... Yeny wasn't quite sure how to use my camera at first):
Beautiful voice, beautiful Panchi! Then three more students sang, they did great too, blah blah blah, then Franco! He sang the full version of the song snippet he sang at the last English festival, and it was wonderful! He had everyone on the edge of their seats.
After Franco there was one more singer, who did a beautiful job (after he stopped a few lines in to say that it wasn't the right track playing, then started again). Then deliberations! Luckily, the other judge and I were on the same page immediately, no debate needed: Franco won first place and Francisca won second! And the last kid won third place, but we weren't as excited about that, obviously. Franco and Panchi were very happy, and we were so proud of them! They got some pretty cool prizes too, like a portable translator and free English courses, and a studio recording session for Franco and a guitar for Panchi. The family reaped quite a bounty! Now we just have to convince them to go professional...
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