December for me was the craziest, yet most blessed month here so far. Being able to spend time with our Ecuadorian neighbors during this beautiful season of waiting, hope and the anticipation has so very much enriched my understanding of the holiday season. There were so many beautiful and memorable moments, I will try my best to impart the highlights of my my Ecua-advent experience.
It´s beginning to look a lot like....Christmas!? Let me tell you, spending December below the Ecuador requires some real cognitive re-orientation. I can´t wrap my brain around the fact that it is winter in the US. It still feels as though it should still be August there! As I helped neighbors decorate Christmas trees and hang up Christmas lights, I couldn´t help but miss the beauty of the gentle falling snow and the coziness of spending time bundled up indoors. So as all of you are enduring the inches and inches of snow falling (so much this year!!), you can think of us running around hot hot hot in our shorts and t-shirts :).
The month started off with the celebration of my birthday. It was an incredibly special day, thanks to so many people. My community members woke me up to a special breakfast and birthday decorations! Then the party continued at school where my students had decorated cards and the nuns I worked with threw me a celebration after school. After school I spent the rest of the day with some of my close neighbor friends. One neighbor, Mariana threw me a birthday party with her three children. I couldn´t imagine a better way to spend the day. Her youngest son, Fernando, had just learned how to walk so he was practicing on his first steps. He was so determined and excited to be independently mobil. It was a precious moment. Later on that evening our community decked out our little home with Christmas decorations while listening to some of our favorite holidays tunes, and after a phone call from home was feeling incredibly loved all over the world. :)
So, somehow during the month of December, I became the resident "arts and crafter" of my school, San Felipe Neri. (Laura Ann you would have been so proud!) My first big project of the month was to construct 100 little lanterns made out of plastic bottles complete with paintings and glitter...I had no life for about four and a half days. The latterns were destined for a special procession in honor of Mary and the Immaculate Conception. The celebration took place on a Tuesday evening with a mass for the students and family. I was at the entrance of the school welcoming students as they entered, when one of my co-workers, Madre Mayra came up to me in a complete frenzy telling me that I had to come with her immediately to help her with something. We ran off to the front of the church where we stopped in front of a crafted image of Mary (made out of Foamix foam paper-nothing says Ecuador liturgical classiness like...foam craft paper) anyways, in a desperate state she explained to me that this image of the Virgen Mary was lacking....eyebrows. Heaven forbid!! We couldn´t continue with mass unless this grave grievence was corrected. So they equipped me with a paint brush and some brown paint and as I stood in front of the whole congregation awaiting mass, I recognized the weight of my next move. One wrong brush stroke, and we would be celebrating an immaculate conception liturgy with a uni-browed Virgen Mary. To my luck, as well as my fellow congregation, the eyebrows turned out nicely and we were able to proceed with a lovely service. There was a special announcement after mass. The principal announced to all the students that there would be no school the next day so that all could rest after being up late...this will never cease to surprise me that they can make these decisions so last minutes! There goes my lesson plan for the next day! Afterwards, the students lit their candles and began their procession. It was absolutely beautiful to see the stream of students illuminating the streets with their glowing lanterns. They prayed decades of the rosary and sang songs to Mary with such great respect and love. Beautiful.
December also included special visitors from the United States! Jeff´s girlfriend, Christine, visited as well as all 5 members of Aaron´s family. We has an awesome time enjoying their company, sharing meals, laughing and getting to know more about our boys in Casa Tomas through spending time with their loved ones :).
In Santa Theresa, the small chapel that I teach chatechism , I have also started leading a small children´s choir. I am completely enamoured. They are my new loves, and an incredible source of joy in my experience here. The group is comprised of between 8-10 children, who are dedicated and so enthusiastic about singing in mass. You can´t help but smile when you look at them. We have practice once a week and then sing at the Saturday night service. At this chapel, we work in collaboration with a woman named Silvia. She is an incredibly inspiring individual. She is so passionate in making things special for the people in the parish, that she makes me believe that the things we dream about doing, could become a reality. Her dream for the parish was to have a beautiful Christmas Eve service, including her desires to have both a special Christmas choir and a Nativity play for the children. As a fellow dreamer (especially when it comes to all things chrismas-y) I was completely willing to help out! My agenda throughout December was peppered with practices for both of these activities...to be continued on how they turned out later in this post :)
Quick note on Ecuador Christmas music, I love it. It doesn´t sound like the happy, twinkling Christmas songs that we hear in the US, but have a South American rhythm and more of a minor-y key signature. Some of our favorite Christmas tunes of the season were called Campanas de Belen, Peces en el Rio, and of course....Mi Burrito Sabanero! (youtube it!! it is so catchy!)
Of course, a large part of my Christmas experience was spending time with my kiddos at school! During the 9 days before the begininng of Christmas vacations, the students celebrated the Novenas every morning. They would talk about different Christmas themes, and sang songs. We had several English classes learning about the vocabulary and traditions of Christmas in the US. We were also able to do an awesome Christmas card exchange with a class of students in the United States (Thanks to Diane Pierre!!). It was very exciting for the students to receive mail from across the world! Also, the school had a Christmas celebration on the 22nd of December. To prepare for this event, we organized a Nativity play, choreographed Christmas dances, and sang Ecuador Villancicos. The party turned out great: performances, singing dances, even Santa made a visit....with some creepy looking elves. Luckily the kids didn´t seem to care :)
Another Advent highlight was participating in Las Posadas. This is a Christmas tradition that is celebrated throughout Latin America. This takes place the nine days leading up to Christmas, commemorating Mary and Joseph´s journey to Bethlehem. A posada starts with a small procession to the house where the event will take place. (it changes every night). When the group arrives to the house, the begin singing a song, which is about asking for a place to stay. The group outside represents Mary and Joseph, and those inside the house sing the other part of the song which represents the part of the innkeepers. When Becky and I went, we knew the neighbor, whose house we were at, so we sang the part of the innkeepers. At the end of the song everybody comes in the house, where there is a small reflection, prayers, and singing. The whole event was beautiful, and filled with this amazing sentiment of genuity. These people truly embody their faith in their actions, words, and prayers. As we were offering intentions for the advent season, I was taken aback by a beautiful intention offered by one of the Señoras in the Parish. She thanked God so deeply for the way that he chose to come into this world. She said that we should always remember the trust that Mary and Joseph had when they came to Bethlehem. Nothing turned out the way that they would have hoped or planned on their own accord. They were in a completely desperate place, called on the Lord to provide for them and he did, although not in the way that they expected- yet that made all the difference. The idea that the king of everything would so humble himself to be born in a lowly manger, rejects the idea that greatness is contingent on material riches. Jesus was born with his heart open to all people, and with a focus on the things that really matter: love, faith, and goodness. She prayed that God would continue to humble her heart, that she would be able to turn her focus from herself to those with an incredible need around her. This woman lives in a cane house, struggles to make ends meet and does with SO much less than I am blessed to have in the US-and her Christmas prayer-that she would continue to be humble and live more simply to help others. -What a powerful prayer to witness! What a beautiful embodiment of what truly matters during this season, and in life. I pray that I can guard this beautiful prayer in my heart, so that I can recall its wisdom in the Christmas seasons in the future.
So all of these beautiful memories lead me to the events of Christmas Eve and Christmas day, a tale of its own, which I will blog about soon!!
Love and peace to all of you.
