Merry Christmas!

A belated Merry Christmas to you all! I hope you had a happy and healthy holiday.

We had a hectic, but AMAZING month of December here in Mount Sinai. To give you an idea of what a month it has been, I’ll give you the rundown of a typical day the week before Christmas…I found myself wearing running shoes and running to some places as I was always late for something (I guess I am finally adjusting to “Ecua time”).

6:45am – Running to a neighbor’s home, late already because my alarm didn’t go off

7am – Running with my neighbor’s family to catch the bus to the school Christmas party

7:30am – After being introduced to everyone as the “gringita” friend of the family, I down an overflowing plate of arroz con pollo

8:10am – Running again to catch a bus to Hogar de Cristo to participate in a mass for all the employees and volunteers (that started at 8…)

10am-1pm – Working on my personal project at Hogar de Cristo on microenterprises in Mount Sinai. I’m in phase one…walking and mapping all of Mount Sinai to classify the small businesses

1-2pm – Lunch at a neighbor’s house

2-5:30 – Christmas party at our afterschool program

6-10pm – Posada at our church (I´ll explain this below)

10:30pm – Cooking dinner together as a community and exhaustion finally hits!

At our first Posada

We celebrated las posadas at our three chapels the nine days before Christmas. Each church had it´s own unique feel. At San Felipe each night a lot of the students of the school and our immediate neighbors gathered to sing Christmas songs and explore the meaning of the holiday and Jesus´ birth. Corpus Christi and Santa Teresa had a different set up. We all met at the church together and from there walked to a neighboring home. Different people each night dressed up as Mary and Joseph and we walked singing carols with just one candle imitating their search for shelter. Once at the home, we sang back and forth a posada song with the owners of the home, asking to be let in as Mary is carrying the son of God. Once inside we either had a talk, a prayer, or prayed the rosary before sharing in a meal or snack together. Las posadas were a unique and different way for me to celebrate Christmas, and it allowed me to reflect on the actual experience of Mary and Joseph and how I may prepare to welcome Christ into my own home and life.

In order to get into the Christmas spirit, and celebrate Christmas in a familiar way I shared my family’s tradition of cookie baking/decorating. I baked with my community, at our after school program’s Christmas party, and with my neighbors. It was nice to share a piece of my own life with our neighbors. The children at the afterschool program were especially cute…some thought their cookies were too beautiful to eat!

Dressed up for Christmas party at Refuerzo

On the 23^rd we had a Christmas party for all of our guards and their families. We cooked for about 50 people and then provided the entertainment for the night, a Rostro tradition. We decided to change the lyrics to some popular American and Spanish Christmas songs to rhyme with our experience here in Ecuador. We changed Mariah Carey´s “All I Want for Christmas is You” to all of the things we are missing from home…like food, chocolate, snow etc. The song Silent Night is Noche de Paz (Night of Peace) in Ecuador which we changed to Noche sin Paz (Night without sleep). We joked about all the noises of Mount Sinai that keep us awake at night (roosters, dogs, and water trucks etc.)

Christmas eve we spent the entire day in our community Christmas caroling and handing out our Christmas cards to all of our beloved neighbors (above). Miguel brought along his guitar and we did our best to sing carols in English and Spanish. The smiles and happiness each family showed, and even the tears some mothers shed, at our presence and our honest attempts to sing was overwhelming. It was also quite humorous trying to explain to each neighbor that there is just one sweater and with the “magic” of the computer we created this photo. After about 7 hours of caroling and a delicious lunch break at our guard´s house with his family, we went to three masses back to back to back at each of our three chapels. Again, there was such life and light celebrating with these 3 communities. While we were definitely a little loopy returning home past midnight to finally cook dinner, we were definitely filled with life and energy from an amazing day.

Christmas day in Sinai!

Christmas day was HOT (definitely in the 90´s!) but relaxing. The Arbolito volunteers came over to Mount Sinai and we cooked together all day. Everybody played some part in the meal we shared in together.

Christmas night laying in bed and finally taking a breath after a busy month I reflected on the end of advent. At the beginning of the advent season during one of our spirituality nights we proposed the question “how are we preparing to welcome Christ into our lives?”. While I lamented the fact that I did not have the time to intentionally pray on this question very much, I think I witnessed the answer in the warm hugs and smiles that welcomed us at each home we caroled at. I lived the answer through the example of hospitality and open arms my neighbors have shown in welcoming me into their lives in this year.

December 27^th through January 1^st my family visited Ecuador. We spent two days in Cuenca, a historic city about 3 hours from Monte Sinai, and the rest of the time meeting my worksites, community, and neighbors. Below are a few pictures to highlight our time in Cuenca.

New Years Eve was spent here in Mount Sinai with my community. Ecuador has a tradition of burning “año viejos”, paper mache dolls filled with fire works and doused with gasoline. The whole sky lit up with random fireworks in every direction. A picture can in no way do justice to the experience, but below are a few pictures of us burning our año Viejo, Yogi Bear in an old Rostro polo.

With our guards and año viejo

Our street at midnight

Happy New Years friends! Feliz año!

Colleen