A few of my favorite things...

In the spirit of the holiday season, these are a few of my favorite things...
(in no particular order)

listening to and singing Christmas music
decorating our apartment
colors of red and green all over
Christmas lights!
hot cocoa with marshmallows after being outside in the cold
snow! (if we're lucky enough to get any...)
snow activities like sledding, snowball fights, and snowpeople
sweaters with leggings and thick socks
the smell of pine in my living room from a real Christmas tree
decorating the tree with 25+ years of ornaments
hanging stockings over the fireplace
making a stocking for my little girl Bella
St Nicks Day (even though I know what I'm getting because I'm the one who does the buying now)
Advent - preparing to welcome the Light of Christ into the world
Advent calendar (the real ones that tell a story, not that have chocolate)
Advent wreath and lighting another candle each week
baking Christmas cookies
decorating Christmas cookies
my grandma Abler's fudge
chocolate covered pretzels
spending time with extended family I rarely see
the joy and excitement of children, especially my nephews

What are some of your favorite things?

Christmas 2011

Christmas Activities

Well, the week of Christmas I was pretty busy at the parish preparing for a concert of Christmas carols (villancicos), practicing with the choir for Christmas Eve and Christmas Day mass, and rehearsing with the theater group for our reenactment of the nativity story. The villancicos concert was Wednesday the 23rd after evening mass. Three of the groups I participate in sang songs: English, Canticos del Sol (the youth choir), and TEFA (the theater group). Our English students sang O Come All Ye Faithful, Jingle Bells, and We Wish You A Merry Christmas. Marcelle and I also played two flute duets of Christmas arrangements. The songs with the youth choir were probably two of my favorite that I learned this year: Cholito Jesus and Mi Burrito Sabanero. Cholito Jesus mentions all of the things specific to Peru and adds them to the nativity scene including Peruvian instruments, food, drink, and clothing. TEFA sang Navidad Marinero (about fisherman) and Ven a Cantar. I thought overall the concert was a success and everyone seemed to have a good time singing along. My favorite performance was probably from the charismatic group at the parish because they dressed in traditional clothing of the sierra and played the peruvian flute.

For the Christmas Eve mass and Christmas Day all of the choirs joined together to sing under the direction of Padre Raul, who is a pretty talented singer himself. We sang Silent Night in 4 different languages: Spanish, Italian, German (we have two German priests at the parish), and English. For one of the Spanish solos an adorable little boy sang the chorus and then for the English solo the first night all of us missionaries sang, but on Christmas day it was just me. The church was adorned with a beautiful nativity scene of an indigenous tribe in Peru carved by one of the postulants. One interesting tradition that was new is that almost everyone brought a baby Jesus to be blessed by the priests to adorn their nativity scene. There was a table in the front of the altar filled with baby Jesuses. At any given mass this table is also there and people will bring water or other adornments that they wish to be blessed by the priests. Mass started around 9pm with our theater group reenacting the Christmas story. I played the part of a master of the law (basically a scribe) and a shepherd. It was directed by one of the group members and I thought it went well. Mass ended around 10:30pm and everyone left to prepare for their big dinner at midnight.

Gracias a Dios each of us had invitations to someone's house to share in this midnight meal and celebration. Our friends Roy and Laura from the parish invited Marcelle and I to eat with them, so after mass we headed to their house to hang out and wait until midnight. At midnight we went out into the streets filled with children and all of the neighbors lighting off fireworks and wishing one another a Feliz Navidad. It was a really beautiful and grace filled moment for me standing in front of the house, looking out onto this street in a Peruvian neighborhood with its Christmas lights, decorations, dirt, trash, fireworks, and listening to the shouts and laughter of the children and adults, taking everything in and feeling God born in this holy moment in a completely foreign country and culture. Then we all headed back inside to share a meal of turkey, french fries!, salad, and lots of bread and hot chocolate. Marcelle and I headed home early for Peruvian standards around 2am because we were both pretty exhausted.

Christmas day all of us missionaries went to a lunch at the Dominican sisters' house with the Incarnate Word sisters and the Sisters of the Misericordia. It was a really nice meal and compartir with all really awesome women! When we got back to the house in the afternoon the five of us had our gift exchange and then rested after a long day. I had mass again that night at 7pm and then after mass was the chocolatada with the drunk men outside the sisters' house which I mentioned in the last post.

While it was a very strange Christmas without any of the traditions I am used to or weather for that matter, I am grateful for the opportunity to have celebrated the birth of Christ in Chimbote, Peru and to learn and share in another culture's traditions and celebrations of the divine present with us. It is definitely a Christmas I will never forget.

For New Years I think we are just going to have a party here at the house with some friends from the parish. There is a tradition of burning dolls in the streets at midnight so I'll let you know how that goes. Also, the shops are covered in yellow right now as there is a superstition that you should wear yellow for the new year to bring good luck, including underwear! They also eat 12 grapes at midnight for each month to bring luck in the new year. I probably won't write for a little while because my friend Sarah from SLU is coming to visit for a week so I'll be hosting her.

Prospero Año Nuevo y que Dios les bendiga en el nuevo año!
paz y amor

Feliz Navidad y Prospero Año Nuevo!

So Merry Christmas a few days late and Happy New Year a few days earlier! The holidays have been so busy and there's so much I want to write and share but the days seem to pass too quickly. So while I know I won't be satisfied with the descriptions below I wanted to share some of the various Christmas celebrations I've been having down here. The presence of God has strongly been felt in all of these, and I am blessed to share in so many moments of divine beauty, love, friendship, joy, and peace. May these Christmas vignettes make you more aware of the presence of God in your own life and relationships.

El Penal (the prison)
With the Comision de Justicia Social we had three Christmas celebrations in the prison with different pavillons (cell blocks). Monday the 14th we celebrated with the women. We had a prayer service to begin and many of the women participated in sharing the Christmas story. One particularly poignant moment was with a woman who had recently given birth. With her daughter only a few weeks old she lit the candle as a symbol of hope and new life. This woman is in prison for her collaboration in a kidnapping which ended in the young girl dying. It was a very public case in Chimbote and Max, the young man responsible for the girl's death was just sentenced to life in prison without parole. I think he's only 18 years old. Everyone in the prison knows what she's in for, but in that moment her and her newborn daughter were a symbol of hope and new life like the incarnation of God in the world. It was powerful. After the prayer service we played a number of games with the women and it was great to see them laugh and have fun with one another. We ended with the signature of any Christmas celebration here in Peru: hot chocolate and panetone (a christmas type bread with raisin type fruit pieces).

Then on Thursday we had a celebration with the largest group of male prisoners (about 120). This was a very different enviornment; with the women there were only about 20. We started with the games first in order to attract more of them to the patio to participate and sang songs as well. Then we had our prayer reflection and ended the same as the women with chocolate, panetone, and a small gift of some basic hygiene type products. While the men are always a little more rowdy they were good participants until this point when we were handing things out. Then it was crazy because there were men from other pavillons so we were trying to separate out who should be there and who shouldn't (there doesn't seem to be a lot of regulation or strict enforcement amongst the gaurds) and then everyone was shoving to get their presents and food. They live in a desperate situation and I understand the mentality of wanting to make sure they get something and normally having to fight for it, but it was sad to witness that reality and how it puts them all in competition with one another. But overall I would say it was a great celebration and until the end everyone enjoyed him or herself and was able to celebrate a bit of the Christmas spirit even in prison. I wasn't able to go the third celebration because I was helping with the chocolatada for Adulto Mayor in the parish.

Adulto Mayor/ Tercer Edad
At the parish there is a group for older parishoners that meets once a month called adulto mayor. Our animacion group has helped out in the past, and for their chocolatada this month they asked us to come back and annimate the party. We wore our Christmas hats and vests and sang songs and played games. It's always fun to get the older generation up and moving and having fun. The party was only about 30-45 minutes but had all the essentials of a good Peruvian Christmas party and the youth were able to share some of their joy and energy with the adults and have a great time.

Good Shepherd Sisters
I went out with the Good Shepherd sisters to two Christmas celebrations in people's houses. The first one was with a group of children who had recently received Baptism or First Communion with the Sisters. Hermana Karina and I met the children playing in the street, covered in dirt of course, and entered a very small, simple home that housed many people. There weren't any adults around and very little furniture or decorations. We gathered around the table in front and with about 8 kids we sang the 4 or 5 Christmas songs they knew. Karina had brought along some bell type noise makes so the kids each had one to accompany the songs and I had a tambourine. When children sing they sing with so much energy and enthusiam; while it might not sound the prettiest, it is beautiful. We talked about the Christmas story, celebrating Jesus' birth, how to prepare to welcome Jesus into our hearts. When asked what Jesus doesn't like one of the little girls said being around men and being drunk, which spoke so strongly to the reality she lives every day. All I could do was hug her and pray that God protect each one of them. It was a simple celebration, but one that spoke of the power of presence and giving witness to the love of God.

The second family I visited with hermana Pilla lived in probably the poorest house I've been in so far here in Chimbote. It was put together with scrap wood and woven wicker (like you make chairs out of) and didn't have a roof in some parts. Inside was separated into two or three different rooms with stuff all over the place. The mother of the house was very sweet and hospitable and talked a while with hermana Pilla about her struggles. She has two older sons, but they don't help her out much and are in trouble a lot. I'm not sure what happend to her husband, but he's not around. So it's mostly just her and her daughters and granddaughters. Her 17 year old daughter has some kind of mental disability and was raped by an older man in his 60s less than a year ago. He impregnanted her and I think her daughter is about a month old right now. The family has tried to prosecute him or at least get him to help pay for expenses, but has not had any luck with the legal system. The mother of the 17 year old girl kept saying, no hay justicia (there isn't any justice). With this family of women who have suffered so much and remind me of all the women daily who suffer from abuse and mistreatment, we sang Christmas songs, shared a few presents, and spoke of the birth of Christ. Again it was a simple celebration but I could see it meant a lot that we came at all, to visit and to celebrate the holiday with them. In some of the scripture readings lately the gospel has spoken of Mary and how she gaurded or kept all of the things she saw and experienced in her heart, and I feel like that's all I can do at the moment. Is to be present, feel with my whole heart and soul, and let these experiences and strong emotions sit in my heart and germinate with time to better understand.

Los Borrachos (The drunks)
One final story because I have to go and then I'll write more later about the celebrations at the parish and Christmas day. There is a group of drunk and homeless men and a few women who live or at least always spend time in the park right outside the Incarnate Word sisters' house. Hermana Silivia with her huge heart decided she wanted to share some chocolate and panetone with these men and women as well. So after the evening mass on Christmas day I accompanied her, hermana Kati, and some youth from the parish to share a small chocolatada with the homeless men and women in the park. Silivia for me in this event was a very powerful example of the love of God made real in the flesh. For me, it was very difficult to be around these men because not only did they smell aweful and were very dirty but they constantly make comments about my physical appearance or ask a lot of questions about where I'm from and where I live (don't worry, I didn't tell them). In some moments when I really tried I could see Jesus in them, esepcially when they were singing or offering thanks, but in other moments it was very difficult and I just wanted to leave. So I recognize I still have a long way to go in learning how to love everyone and serve the suffering Christ present in them, but am grateful for the sister's and their example of love in serving those who live outside their door and I'm sure constantly shout things at them as well.

Well, more later but for now I have to run. I was thinking of you all this Christmas and holding you in my heart and sending love. Blessings in the New Year!

paz y amor