While I must say that it was a very strange experience for me to spend Christmas Eve and Christmas away from my family, Guatemala certainly knows how to keep things interesting. Christmas Eve is the big holiday here in Guatemala. We didn’t do much in the morning to celebrate (it was after all a normal day with chores and showering and complaining from the girls…). Most of the real celebrations took place in the afternoon starting with Mass at 3, then our Nativity play, and then a special dinner.
For weeks Sharon has been bugging us all to go to practices for La Pastorela (the story of Christmas)…and for weeks we’ve been annoyed at her pestering us to give up what little free time we had for practice. Regardless, on Christmas Eve night it all came together. We put on a wonderful play about Maria and Jose looking for an inn, the Sheppard’s’ search for the son of God, and Jesus’ birth….along with our own little twist, including a dance-off between the Archangel Gabriel and his band of angels and the devil and his minions…of course we (the angels) won ;-).
After our Pastorela we had a special visit from…SANTA! The big guy came ALL THE WAY FROM ALASKA to be with us on this special day (yes it’s true…don’t ask me why…but for some reason here they think that Santa’s workshop is in Alaska and NOT the North pole. How ridiculous!) Michael (who had been growing his beard out for a good month) put on some shiny make up and took pictures with all the kids at NPH…and a few volunteers too…
After that, we were AGAIN treated to a delicious turkey feast complete with MORE stuffing and carrots and even sweet potato pie with marshmallows on top! While all the volunteers, visitors, and foreigners found the food quite delicious…most of the kids either refused to eat it or actually got sick DURING DINNER from eating foods their stomachs aren’t used to. While I thoroughly enjoyed my second turkey dinner in the course of 3 days…I know for a FACT that a lot of the kids would have preferred rice, beans, and platanos to the gigantic, cook-it-all-day meal.
After dinner we all settled in for a bonfire outside of the comedor…for a good FOUR HOURS. The tradition here in Guatemala is that everyone waits up until midnight to celebrate Jesus’ birthday and then honor it like we honor the New Year in the states – with lots of fireworks, sparklers, and hugs. It was a FREEZING cold night – but we all cuddled up next to the roaring bonfire while the kids roasted sausages and marshmallows (I mean let’s be honest – most of them didn’t even TOUCH the aforementioned turkey meal). After 4 hours of waiting the fireworks began to explode…and you could see them from every direction, going off all over our part of Guatemala. It might have been a long night, but it was a good one :).
Christmas Eve was a wonderful celebration of family and love here at NPH, but unfortunately Christmas was just a regular day. The kids woke up, did their chores, took showers, and continued as if Christmas didn’t exist. We watched movies all day in the section (because even though they didn’t feel like there was anything to celebrate – hey! It was Christmas!) It was strange being away from my family for the day, but I’m still glad that I get to celebrate Christmas all over again in just a few more days :) Feliz Navidad a todos!
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