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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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.