skipping school for...what?

In my couple months of teaching here, I've learned that there are a few unconventional-to-our-standards reasons for students not to go to school.  Sometimes because they just want to sleep.  Sometimes, other activities just sound more fun.  For example, on Monday, my host sister, Ayun, and host mom Charo both didn't go to school or work.  I came home from school and found them just hanging out in the house.  Obviously my first question was if they were sick though they both seemed perfectly healthy.  Turns out they were in perfect health and they had skipped out on daily obligations because they were going shopping at the mall in Viña del Mar.  Right.
But the most interesting reason had to do with weather.  And no, not snow or storms.  My host brother, Amaury, had told me awhile back that when it rains in Quilpué, all the kids stay home from school.  Coming from a place where parents only let their kids stay home if deathly ill or there is a 5-foot layer of snow on the ground, this of course, blew my mind.  He said that they just don't know how to deal with being wet.  To their credit, there are no heaters in the schools and so if they are soaking wet in the winter, there's a pretty good chance of a cold epidemic.  Still, I was curious to see if he was exaggerating or if this was actually true.
Seeing rain when I wake up in the morning usually puts an immediate damper on my mood if I know I have to go out in it.  However, I was interested in seeing how many kids would show up to school with it.  It has hardly rained in Quilpué thus far and never while I was teaching so imagine my excitement when I woke up last Friday and saw that there was a good steady drizzle going with heavier rain to come in the afternoon.  It was probably the first and only time I was excited to go to work in the rain.
When I arrived, I could already tell that the courtyard where all the kids are usually running and screaming before the bell was quieter than normal.  During the first block, one of my 2nd grade classes, I taught 8 kids out of a normal 30.  Only half of my 5th grade class showed up to school and about 13 of my normal 25 1st graders.  Also, my co-teacher changed her lesson plan for the day so that it now focused on rainy days, but we spent most of the time running to the window every time there was a sudden downpour anyway.
So it's true.  When it rains in Quilpué, the kids stay home from school.  I would love to see what would happen if it ever snowed.

Half of a usually full 5th grade class

Muy pocos chiquititos