Merry Christmas! - December 25, 2011

Felicidades y Merry Christmas to you all!

Some of the kids at the Guardaria singing for the Pastorella

Me with the Guardaria Christmas Tree

I hope everyone is having a wonderful Christmas!  We finished up with the Guardaria (preschool) kids at the end of last week with a Posada/Christmas Concert. It was a pretty full house with parents and family pretty much wall to wall.  The kids started with a pastorella (Christmas play) and finished with "Feliz Navidad" complete with movements and maracas and "Christmas is Coming" in English.  In Mexico, it is normal for devils to be in the pastorellas.  This was no exception.  In the guardaria pastorella the devils came in and attempted to stop the shepherds from coming to see the baby Jesus, but, in the nick of time, the angels swooped in and fought with the devils, vanquished them, and afterward helped the shepherds on their way to Bethlehem.  It was pretty cute.  The kids got into the music that we had been practicing with them for the last month. And the two year-olds got into the dancing, some singing, and shaking the maracas we had made with them out of paper rolls, paint, paper, and rice.  

Asking "Posada" outside the church doors

Last night we "pedimos posada" or asked for a room in the inn.  Half of the congregation stood outside the closed church doors by candlelight and sang in the voice of Joseph asking to be let in for the night, while the other part of the congregation was gathered inside the church singing the part of the innkeeper.  That part of the service was beautiful.  After the "innkeepers" let us in the church, the priest gave a blessing and we were sent outside for ponche and multiple pinatas.  Ponche tastes a little bit like apple cider, but is made by boiling sugar, sugar cane, and many other fruits in water for hours.  Each cup is served with the liquid and boiled fruit and sugar cane in the glass.  It is pretty tasty.  They had a bunch of pinatas for the kids out in the courtyard, while we had a gathering and 4 pinatas for the teens/young adults and in another part of the parish.  The satisfying "crack" of the clay pinatas was followed by the same mad dive for candy.  Tonight we will be going to 11pm mass followed by dinner at the parish until 2am.  Emma's parents are coming in for the week, while my other housemate leaves for Canada on Monday.  We are looking forward to being able to spend Christmas Day together.   

 

May the reality of the Incarnation and the Love, Joy, and Peace of Christmas be with you this season,

Much love,

Kirsten

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FYI - I think I fixed it so that the comment function is enabled and anyone can comment on the blog.  Just an FYI for ya!

Thankfulness Abounding

From Left to Right: Patti, Claudia, Marcos, Jessie, Tara.
In the foreground is Tonio and Father's arm.

Left to Right: Emma (missionary), Chelo, Tara (missionary),
Lucy Sr, Lupita, Father Salvatore, Tonio, and in the forground
Daphne.

There is so much to be thankful for.  This was drawn home to me yesterday as we were Emma, Tara, and I were gathered around the parish kitchen table, as we so often are.  It was a normal post-one o'clock mass meal, but it is special, because it feels like family.  We are family down here.  So many of the faces are faces that I see or share a meal with almost every day.  Sitting around the table, there are grandmothers/grandfathers, teenagers, mothers, daughters/sons, and us as missionaries.  There is warm fellowship, and a welcoming atmosphere that beckons table-sharing. One night over a meal (dinner time at the parish is 8:30/10 at night), while watching two people playfully bantering with each other, I realized that we even have the occasional sister and brotherly bickering as well.
     Some of my new "family" down here:
 Father Salvatore (at left standing up in black)
Tonio - a guy with great heart that Father gave a place to live behind our parish house.  He helps with things at the parish throughout the day and is always at table with us.

Jessie - former missionary with our program that stayed on after meeting Marcos, whom she has been dating for two years. She works as an English teacher at one of the area schools up the hill.


Marcos - an amazing painter (mainly murals) that painted quite a few scenes at the parish and many murals around town.

Lucy, Chelo, Carmalita, Sol, and many more - all help out at the parish and are very active.
The teens - very active go-getters!

Gallo - I do not know his real name, but he goes by Gallo (rooster).  He lives on the parish grounds and is the main groundskeeper.

and

David y Oscar - The "Caboobie brothers" (named after a cross-eyed cartoon camel).  They work in the tianges (open air market that changes location depending on the day of the week) during the morning at times, but also help out with various odds and ends at the parish throughout the day.

Sounds of the City

I realized yesterday, as I heard the garbage man come by, that some of the sounds here that I now take for granted, probably would mean nothing to someone not from around here.  Here are some:

- The garbage man/truck comes by on an irregular schedule.  The truck does not come down our street, but the garbage man makes his presence known by ringing a bell up and down the street.  We have three tries to get him, once, when he passes down our alley with a foot-cart for the garbage, and the other two times when he passes down the street in front or back of us.  There is quite excitement, and the quick running of feet, the finding of keys, and the unlocking of the door (from the inside) as we try to catch up with him before they move on to the next street.

- The gas man.  There is no central heating or air-conditioning in our house, but we heat our water by turning on and off the gas powered hot-water that is attached to a roof-top gas tank that has to be replaced when it becomes empty.  The gas guys come by daily and announce their presence by yelling "GAS!" or, what we think is, "Llego" ("I arrive." At first I thought that he was yelling "Jacob" and I couldn't figure out if he had lost his kid or dog, or what he was trying to sell.  One roommate thinks he is yelling "Llego" and the other thinks he is yelling "gas".  After hearing the explanations, I have to go with the "llego").  All we have to do is get the guy's attention, and he will go to the truck and lug the big heavy full tank to our house and up two flights of relatively tight spiral stairs to the roof, connect the hose, and lug away the old tank down the stairs and back to the truck.  You have to admire them.

- A long steam-powered whistle - The guy selling comote, baked/steamed sweet potatoes on a portable steamer going through the streets.

- Ratchets and other unidentified noises from the tire repair place on the other side of the wall from us (see the picture of the tire guys on the "old blog" post.)

- Cat-calls and whistles.  Sure, we have these in the States, but here you can hook your car up to do cat-calls as well.

Essence of "Being" and being available

Some of the greatest times at the Guardaria are in the ¨being.¨ Jesus came down to earth, and entered into life to ¨be¨ with us.  God is continually telling us through scripture that, “I will be with you.”  What does that mean, and what does that look like in every day life?  One of my personal desires is to live that reality of “being with,” being available, accompanying, in daily life.  That is one of the things I strive for here, and I treasure the one on one time I get to spend one on one with others.                     

Last week, I noticed that one of our four year olds had been sleeping through music class. This had not been the first time, and he had been having a much harder time listening, staying in his seat, and seemed to be crying much more easily than normal.  So, after music, I pulled him in for a chat.  At first, he thought that he was in trouble and started crying, but I put him in my lap and we chatted for about ten minutes.  Why was he so tired?  Why was he having trouble “comporting bien” at school?  Was everyone okay at home?  No.  Was mom okay?  Yes.  Was dad okay?  Yes.  Hermanos?  Yes.  Friends?  No.  They were older and too big, and couldn't go to school with him.  As he talked, he stopped crying, and started rattling on about his friends.  We talked a little more about “comporting bien” and the fact that we missed his voice as we were learning our Christmas songs.   I gave him a hug and sent him off to play.  The next minute he was tearing around the playground with the others.       

The next day, I was standing outside of the classroom working on another project, and he yelled out to me, “Miss Kristi!”   I turned and looked.  He was the first person in line, and he looked proud.  He was actually just about quivering with proudness.   He yelled out, “Miss Kristi!  I’m comporting bien!”  His teacher had chosen him as the line leader (a great honor for a preschooler).  He wanted me to know.  It made my mouth smile and my heart laugh.

Part of me can get so task oriented at times, but I am so glad of the reminders.  The dignity and the wonder of a little man’s soul.  And the profound, beautiful gift of glimpsing that soul as one that soul takes into confidence.

A Day to Give Thanks

We had Thanksgiving dinner at our house this year.  We invited over friends, the sisters down the hill, and all the staff and teachers at the guardaria.  It was a blessed time and we were happy to have welcomed 30 adults and 5 children into our home.

Emma hamming with some of the teachers.

Father Salvatore started washing dishes as soon as he got in the house.

We started out with just a few friends and the Sisters, but after talking to some of the teachers and seeing their interest, we decided to invite the whole school.  So Wed, the day before Thanksgiving, our dinner jumped from 9 to 22 invited, and we went from needing two chickens to four for dinner (turkey was too expensive).  Tara cleaned the house and made apple crisp and Miriam cooked and stuffed the chickens (from our "chicken guys" that morning. It was a pretty fun outing. Fresh and I had them cut off the head and feet). Emma was sick but helped me get food prepped the night before (potatoes, carrots, brownies, pumpkin, green bean casserole, etc). 

Part of our crowd (pretty happy, huh?)

We had to work that day, so people started arriving around 7pm.  It was a joy to be able to welcome them into our house for the first time. The first teacher to arrive was pretty nervous, but a big crowd started arriving at 7:30, some bringing wine or refreshments and the preschool director brought a cake and her son, daughter, and baby grandchild. Other people brought children and other family members. Though we had room in the sitting room, almost everyone crowded into the kitchen and about 10-15 of them crammed themselves on a wooden church pew we had set out, other people chose other seating on the spiral stairs, and various other seats we had out. The sisters from down he hill got there around 8pm. I had to run back over to the parish to pick up more silverware and plates as we didn't expect that many. We were all a little worried about having enough food, but everyone had generous helpings with quite a bit of food let over (Praise God!  I kept on thinking of the multiplication of the loaves!). While I was gone getting more plates and such, everyone went around and said one thing that they were thankful for. That was nice.  At least one person got a little emotional. I think people loosened up with the food. We started eating around 8:30, and a few people starters leaving around 10pm. But the majority left around 10:30 with a few staying until 11pm. Father and Miriam stayed a little late. God bless Father, as soon as he had got in the door that night, he started washing dishes (of his own accord), and and did not stop for a good half an hour or more.  Still with that help, we stayed up till 1am cleaning and storing away all the left-overs.  It was a good night, and it was wonderful how God turned a simple conversation with a few teachers into a way to invite them all over to our house for time of fun and fellowship.  

A couple of the teachers' daughters hanging out.

Old Blogs, Postings

Here are some of my old blogs and postings, so everything is in one spot! October 25-ish My director brought some changes. I've been doing language classes in the morning and have spent the rest of the day either studying or filled up with some other things, none of which I can think of now. But I had been out of "work" for the last two or three weeks. It sounds good but it was needing something to do. Well, I am glad that I am back with my kiddies now teaching music with one of my housemates. I was in with the babies the last two days for a couple of hours and I was loving the time I got to just be with them and to talk to the teachers in Spanish. I have to speak it full time now and I am finding that challenging, but on the same hand a little invigorating when I get to speak it with willing Mexicans. I find it a little more trying to try to speak it with my companions at home, just because I want to be able to say more and want a space to be fully heard/understood. But things are improving in the Spanish and other areas. We got a lot more direction from this last visit and our main goal right now is to get to know the teachers and parents at our school and, once my spanish classes end this week, we are charged with the task of trying to minister to the single mothers in the area by starting up small support/prayer groups. I had been interested I small groips from the beginning, but I don't know I feel about the single mother focus. I have been taking a little survey and I found out that our of the 5-6 babies in the day care, only one has two parents. The rest all have single mothers. There are about 90 kids in all at the guarderia (preschool/daycare), but that ratio of 1/5 I. The babies has to say something about the rest of the population. I am looking forward to getting to know the kids/moms/families better. I also have fell into taking over the children's choir at church. We have another missionary that stayed after her two years were up, took a job teaching English in an area school and continued on with the choir. She is now majorly overwhelmed with everything and wants to drop it. We look like the heir apparents to take it over. Another thing I am looking forward to. Hi Everyone! I am just finishing my third week in Mexico, and just wanted to fill you in while I have a fair minute.  Everything here is fine.  The smog and pollution are starting to get to me on my walk to and from work, but other than that, I am quite content here.  The area I live in is about one hour outside of the center of Mexico City, but it is still very much a part of the city.  There is nothing rural about where I live.  I live in a house with a chapel directly off a four-lane road with much traffic congestion.  Some people describe it as utter chaos (I was told to add this in), and it can be.  What you have, or have not heard about Mexican driving is in fact true.  I do not know the traffic rules, but stopping, one ways, traffic signals, and blinkers all seem to be optional.  Frequent use of the horn, weaving in and out of traffic, and passing within inches of cars and pedestrians seems to be, if not required, very much in effect here.  Rooftop Dogs (from Cuernevaca) There are dogs everywhere.  Many of them are kept on roofs, but most wander the streets or sleep in doorway of houses and stores throughout the day.  Most of them do have owners, but it is very uncommon to see a dog on a leash.  The city is a mass of concrete, and people.  Little stores as little as five or six feet wide (most a little bit larger) are lined up on both sides of the street.  There are garages and some bigger stores mixed in there as well, but it seems like everyone is selling something.  The "car guys" next door to us. Upside down picture of our "street rivers" It has been raining here...alot.  Our roof is made out of a wavy plastic, and I truly love the sound the rain makes as it hits it, but at times it can be difficult to hear the person in front of you.  It is the rainy season here, and our rain combined with the rain further up the hill turns our main street into a rushing river on a regular basis.  Thankfully, after the rain things return back to normal quickly, but I yet to find out where all the water ends up.  I have been very thankful for sewers lately. The parish here is the center of our part of the city.  Their nice big courtyard is a welcome refuge from the compactness of the rest of the city.  They have 7 masses each Sunday and the parish really is home for a number of people here.  I am still meeting people and finding my way around the parish and have been mainly working in the preschool during the day and spending some time at the parish in the evenings.  There is a huge push to survey and reevaluate the needs and assets of the immediate community, and I am very excited by the amount of time and effort that is being put into the process.  I also have been enjoying the fellowship and prayer time with my two housemates.  God is good :) I could write more, but this is it for now.  I hope this finds you all well, and I am thankful for your interest and prayers in this new endeavor.  You are in my prayers, and I would love to hear from you. Much love, Kirsten PS- Below is a blog post I wrote for the missionary organization.  I hope you enjoy! Me in front of my house "capilla" (chapel) New Beginnings I have almost finished my second week in Santa Fe and, apart from a large lack of spanish on my part, the place already feels like home.  Everyone has been so much more than friendly.  There is a singing-fest going on outside of the long-term missionary's door as I write this and we as missionaries have been welcomed into this rather boisterous, large family.  Yesterday a eleven piece mariachi band just "happened" to stop by and serenade us for about an hour during a baptism reception, another nine piece one tonight, and any night of the week at least 8-10 people are gathered around the table talking and eating until ten or eleven at night. My first night here there were fireworks.  Literally, both inside and outside the church.  We arrived on the Assumption of Mary, a huge day of fiesta in Mexico.  The church was packed, and myself and the other two short term missionaries were called upon to place the crown on Mary's head as fireworks went off over us inside the church.  Outside, after mass, was a concert and los toros locos, the crazy bulls.  Los toros locos  re bulls built into a two foot frame filled with fireworks.  These fireworks are lit, and then someone places the entire frame, fireworks and all, on their head and runs through the crowd with fireworks shooting off their head into the crowd at entirely unexpected times.  What an introduction!  The rest of my time here has been less flammable.  Last week myself and the two second year missionaries I am living with trooped around Mexico City.  We saw many of the sites, visited the Shrine of Our Lady of Guadalupe, the government palace, the central Cathedral, and marketplaces. Part of downtown Zoccolo The plaza in Mexico City is one of the largest in the world, second only to Moscow's, and it faces the main government building.  It was very powerful to see that most of the square was full of tents/banners protesting government corruption, and foam tombstones representing the over 40,000 people who have been murdered in the last four years.  The central part of the square is dedicated to concentric painted red squares with each tile containing a message of love for Mexico or a call to end the killings/corruption. Part of the protests in the Zoccolo This second week began with the colors of a two hour Aztec dance of thanksgiving for the harvest in our parish courtyard and Emma and I started back at the Guardaria working with the 4 year old preschool class.  Our first day began by being placed in charge of the class when the teacher in charge quit rather unexpectedly.  A couple of later nights ensued while we tried to come up with art projects, songs, and lesson plans to fill up the time before they find a replacement teacher.  I ended the week by coming down with a 101 fever that took me out for Thursday and Friday, leaving Emma alone with the kiddies.  Thankfully, Wed, we got some help and were able to finally set up the room, and that person was able to help Emma the last two days while I was out.  We were all a little tired after our first week, and welcomed the last few days of festivities.

Dia de los Muertos

El Dia de los Muertos/Halloween was a three day event here.  Halloween is not a traditional holiday here, but with the American influence, has been celebrated here for about 20-30 years.  It is not a big holiday by any means, but kids do dress up, Halloween candy and decorations are in the store, and yes, they do go trick or treating TWO days, Oct 31st, and Nov 1st.  We saw more people out on  Nov 1st (All Saints Day) than on Halloween itself.  Most kids were dressed up as skeletons, corpses, devils, etc in keeping with the Day of the Dead theme.  Going with the skeleton theme, "Trick or Treat" is replaced by "Give me my skull."  A blending of American and Aztec traditions. 

An "ofrenda" at the preschool

The Guardaria (preschool) decorated for Dia de los Muertos

El Dia de los Muertos dates back to the time of the Aztecs.  Ofrendas are built in homes and schools, etc with food, flowers, and sugar/chocolate skulls on them in honor of the loved ones that passed away.  From what I have read, death was celebrated by the Aztecs as a continuation of life, and not the end.  The orange and purple flowers below are the traditional flowers of the day.  El Dia de los Muertos, Nov 2nd (All Souls Day), I was told that people visit the graves during the day, and some of them take a picnic and eat over a person's tomb.  Early that morning I took a walk and encountered stand upon stand of flowers, and food.  Police were directing traffic and there were people everywhere.  There was a line 7-8 feet across and probably a 100 feet deep of people trying to get into the cemetery, the sidewalks were full, and more people were still coming. Some people did have coolers, and many were still there when we as missionaries went into the cemetery later that day.   

FYI for those that do not know me well.  I am not in the habit of taking pictures of graves, but I did want to send along some pictures of what life is like here.  I went back the day after to take these pictures, as it did not seem right to take them that day.  The graves were decorated beautifully, and you might notice from the pictures, though most of the tombs are in the ground, there is a planter box of sorts on top of some of the graves.  Some of them were full of flowers just for that day, while others had a garden planted in them.  

Tomb with flower garden on top.

More cemetery

Welcome to the Blog!

I have been meaning to do this for some time...  There are so many things to write about that it is difficult to know what to write about in my semi-monthly post, so I put it off.  This will give me the ability to comment on whatever I want, and hopefully let you into my world while I do it.  So... here it goes!

Sunday was the big celebration for Senor de Veneno, Lord of the Poison.  Our parish has a capilla (chapel) down the hill from us.  It is located on a steep slope of what can only be termed a mountain.  People go up and down  (and live up and down)  the hill every day, but, oui!  is it steep!  So, anyway, the story goes... there once was a priest that kissed the parish crucifix every time as he entered mass, without fail.  One day, a person that did not like him placed poison on the cross in the place where he was accustomed to kiss it.  The cuerpo de Jesus was regular wood or white, but when the priest went to kiss it that day, it turned black, the priest took this as a sign that something was wrong, and did not kiss it that day.  Later on, they found out about the poison.  The cuerpo on the cross is still black today.  I am hoping to be able to post some pictures here so you can see.  There has been a mass on the street (calle) in a different location, every night this week.

        

Wed, it was held in the calle between two houses.  It had been an interesting and sad week for us in the mission house (earlier that day, my roommate's dog was killed by a bus, and a few days before we found out our parish puppy had been killed in a different way), and we were in need of some cheering up.  It was wonderful to be able to walk down the hill through semi-dark streets that we were told to be careful in and to never go in at night, and end up at this wonderful, floodlit celebration in the street with about 100 or more people.  The mass was done over a makeshift altar and the priest and the lectors talking though a megaphone for the crowds to hear.  Many people here come to mass, but do not receive communion.  The priest went through the crowd and gave communion to whoever had their hand up to receive.  Afterwards, I noticed people from the surrounding houses had come out on their roofs/upper-floor patios to watch and participate.  It was beautiful.  They had strung red and white streamers, some of them hand-made, from house to house across the calle.  Immediately after mass, they whisked out serving tables, food, and the next thing I knew, people with baskets of bread, punch, cookies, and pazole (a typical Mexican soup for special occasions with garbanzo beans (or something like it), tomato broth, and various condiments like lettuce or chicken on top), were heading our way in all directions.  More food kept coming our way, so that when the Jello course came (Jello is a big thing here), it ended up in my pocket simply because I did not have hands to carry it as well.

                Friday night was in someone's garage two doors down from the Senor de Veneno Capilla (Chapel) itself.  Mass started late, if you are looking at Germanic-time, but after we walked there, Father was up and starting mass within two minutes. Fireworks/boomers were sounding in the background, and curious street dogs were continuously being shooed away as the mass went on.  This reminded me how lowly dogs were viewed in Palestine.  After the mass, everyone had a little reception, and Father ended up going to bless a St. Jude capillita (street shrine) and we visited a few more homes before scaling the hill for the night. 

                Saturday and Sunday were masses in the capilla of Senor de Veneno itself.  Saturday was a normal mass, but Sunday was an all day celebration starting at 9am with mariachi bands and the works.  2pm signaled the start of the procession from our parish to the capilla down the hill.  The procession of two crosses and Our Lady included whirling multi-colored costumed dancers, a band, and about a hundred or more people.  Whereas the morning procession took over the main street for a couple blocks, the afternoon procession noisily made its way through the back streets, more and more people coming by to watch and to say hello or join our motley crew as we made our way to the parish.  The main cross was handed from person to person as we went down the steep hill to where over 400-500 people were waiting for mass directly outside of the chapel.  Mass seemed like an afterthought to some during the festivities of the day, whereas others were very involved in the mass itself.  Mass ended with the crowning of the black Jesus on the cross, and cheer-led chants of “Give me a C-R-I-S-T-U-S!  What does that spell? Cristus, Cristus, Cristus!”  Afterward, before the sound of the chant had died away, there was the sound of multiple fireworks being let off at the same time.  Tables were taken out and people were served a hearty meal to celebrate both on the street, and where we were outside the chapel.  

                 I continue to be amazed at how efficiently, and joyfully, hospitality is practiced down here.  A few weeks ago, another missionary and I were invited to the deacon's house for dinner.  Dinner here is around 8pm or later.  We were treated to wonderful food and hospitality, laughing and talking around the table until around midnight.  We found out later that we were invited because the deacon's wife felt bad that she had brought this special dish to the parish and when we walked in, she did not have any for us.  So this little cena (dinner) was arranged on our behalf.  Hospitality is well practiced here, and I am hoping to really learn the lesson :)