Feliz Navidad
My last blog was on the activities leading up to Christmas Eve. This blog is dedicated to the activities on Christmas Eve and Christmas Day at NPH Honduras.
Christmas Eve: The first ranch-wide activity on Christmas Eve was the “Posada” or re-enactment of Mary and Joseph looking for lodging on Christmas Eve. Allen and I were asked well ahead of time to be Mary and Joseph (Maria and Jose in Spanish). When we accepted, we were under the guidance that we would be given costumes to wear. However, when we hadn’t heard anything from the organizer and it was only a few hours until the event, we found his contact information and messaged him to find out when we were expected to be at the start location and whether we needed to bring anything. I don’t know why we were surprised, but there was no pre-planning for our costumes. He responded with the request for us to find something at the volunteer house or to go to the Annex (where the Religion Department works) and ask for help there. We quickly hunted around and came up with costumes: sheets, old football and an old rope plus some cassocks and fabric that the religion department had). We also found out late in the game that there would likely be a burro involved 😊.
I have to say that it felt really strange to be “embarazada” (pregnant) at this time in my life, but miracles can happen with the baby Jesus involved! The Posada started sometime after 5PM with a procession around the ranch. The man with the burro was a little late, but in time for me (as Mary) to ride it for quite a ways. We kept our costumes on and sat up front by the altar during mass. Based on the comments from the children, I think they were equally impressed with the riding of the burro as by the costumes as some of them thought that I was really pregnant.
After mass, everyone went to the fiesta which included many long banquet tables set up with a real table cloth and little battery-powered lanterns. Dinner was a wonderful meal of nacatamales which look like super tamales in size and content with lots of meat and vegetables wrapped in a banana leaf.
Music and dancing went on throughout the night and a stage was set up where different groups could take their pictures on a red sofa, next to the grinch, or under a rainbow of balloons.
Late in the evening a big bonfire was lit and a large area roped off so the kids would safely watch from a distance. Marshmallows were distributed and some of the kids tried to use long sticks to roast their marshmallows from a distance. Even though they were too far away for a full roasting, they seemed to be satisfied with a slightly warm marshmallow.
The fiesta lasted until just after midnight and I am pretty sure that the Tias and Tios did not have to wait long for the kids to fall asleep. The volunteers were told to deliver the gifts around 2PM, so some of us watched The Christmas Chronicles (on the new TV that one of the volunteers had won as a raffle gift at the employee Christmas dinner). I made a double-batch cake as I had agreed at the fiesta to provide the cake (“pastel”) for some of the kids in my hogar to take on their family visit for their grandfather’s birthday. Unfortunately, the oven in the volunteer house has been very erratic lately and I had to use the oven in a nearby building.
A little before 2PM, the volunteers distributed the bags of gifts to the hogars. In some cases a Tia or Tio was there to accept the gifts or to unlock the hogars so we could deliver. In other cases, a key was left in the door for us to get in on our own. It was no surprise to me that Divina Niño (Allen’s hogar) had the most gifts per child as Allen had the means and the opportunity to buy extra gifts for his “kids”.
Christmas Day: Many of the volunteers set an alarm so they could be at their hogars by 7 to watch gifts being unwrapped. Allen and I chose not to set an alarm, but woke up at 7:30 and got to our hogars by 8 which was in time for breakfast. The kids in my hogar proudly showed me their gifts. Many of them got digital watches and it was adorable to see how special a digital watch can be. They were constantly comparing the time with each other and with my cell phone. Since the next activity started at 9AM, they were well aware and ready to go (“vamos”) when the Tia commanded.
I was given the option of staying with
the younger kids at the hogar or going with the older kids to give away
clothing and toys to a local community. I chose to go with the older kids and
joined with a large group of about 3 dozen kids under the age of fourteen plus
8 adults to a local mountain community. I guess the buses were not available
and we ended up waiting a half hour before piling into a large van and a double
cab truck. I was in the double cab truck with about 10 kids and 3 adults in the
cab plus more adults and gifts in the back. The van was equally loaded.
We were driven a short ways north of the
ranch and dropped off at a few stores off the main highway where we all got off
and gave each of the kids a package of clothes (wrapped in brown paper and a
ribbon) and a plastic bag of toys. Then we started off on a dirt road that led
up to a path along the river leading uphill to a mountain community.
We stopped at different homes distributing the clothing and toys and getting big smiles in return. In one case we were gifted back some fruit from the home-owner’s tree.The group branched off to side roads when necessary and the donation trip ended up being quite a hike with blue sky and sunshine. I can understand why the younger children were kept back. We regathered at the start location and were happy to have two full sized vans to go back. They were packed also but seemed relatively spacious in comparison.
The rest of the day was relatively
relaxing. I brought the double cake over so the kids in my hogar could decorate
it and then spent the day hanging out with them, writing in their little
notepads (librettos) that I had given as a gift and watching the Jungle Book in
Spanish (Libro de Selva). Around 5:30 we went to the church to watch a movie called
a Pastorela that was made last year by the Religion Department. Apparently a
movie is usually made every year, but there was not time this year. It was fun
to see children and adults on the ranch in their acting roles.
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