Christmas Fun

Well, I'd first of all like to take the chance to wish all my blog readers a very merry Christmas and, hopefully, a wonderful 2009. This is officially the second Christmas I have spent far away from home, and it was very different from teh last one that I spent in South Africa. Salustio and Yani offered me the chance to take either Christmas or New Year off, but as all the people I know have either gone home to be with their families or will be in the homes over both festivals, I decided that it would certainly be better to spend both holidays working than to spend one of them alone, potentially watching television!

Christmas here was different in the sense that it didn't really seem to get mentioned until the week of the 25th, there were no Christmas parties or any of that, bairly even Christas music on the radio. Probably the strangest thing for me, was that even on the last Sunday of Advent, Christmas was not mentioned at all in church - not a Christmas song, or even a Christmas reading. That meant that I really have felt a bit distant from the whole 'birth of Jesus' shenanigans this year, which was a real shame, as thats normally such a special thing for me, and God almost always teaches me something new about his character. I think its probably just an effort on the part ofthe church to distance themselves from the commercialism of Christmas, but it was still really strange for me. I also really missed advent candles.

We had one very exciting trip out in the evening to see all the lights that have been set up around the city. Typically, they were totally hideous (not much different from George Square last year!) and one of the light displays was essentially just a massive piece of Coca Cola advertising, but the girls absolutely loved it, if only for the chance to get out and have a wander around the city. I now have an enormous collection of pictures of girls with Santa, girls with giant light up snowmans etc. Which are obviously exactly the kind of pictures that I want!

We also decorated the home for Christmas day, there was no tree or anything like that, but we wrap lots of shiny ribbon around the pillars and put up lights so it was really pretty. The main prepartion for the day itself just involved a massive amount of cooking. We made panetoni which, to my huge disapointment, didn't rise and is really hard, but it was a lot of fun to make and smelled really good in the process so I'm not too upset about it! There were other desserts that had to be made, and we had to prepare the pork and turkey for being roasted (the pork was amazing mmm).

As with I think most of the countries in South America, the main part of the Christmas action happens late on Christmas Eve - celebrations started at about 10pm, by the time all the food was done with being cooked and the table was all decorated and everything. All the girls put on the clothes that they bought at the market for Christmas day, and then we put on music, mainly salsa, for dancing. I'm not going to lie, I didn't do a huge amount of dancing although I did participate, but some of the girls just dance so well so it was amazing to watch them. At about 11.30 Salustio got back from visiting his family in the city and we got the food out which was extremely tasty. At twelve when the fireworks started going off around the city (slightly dodgy, dangerous fireworks that are sold on street corners) I gave the gifts that I bought for the girls (mainly sweets and hair things) and opened my very exciting package from my family. As exciting for some of the girls as it was for me, especially when I split up the chocolate coins!

Christmas day was interesting as it felt a lot more like boxing day than Christmas day itself: we got up late, we had a lot more visitors, we ate Christmas leftovers, quite a lot of the day was spent watching films and having naps. All in all it was an interesting Christmas - not the best one I've ever had, but it is always a great experience to spend Christmas in another culture.

Things weren't qutie as difficult on the 24th as I had thought it would be, or even as I had been warned it would be. There were a few tears as people began to think of their families, and some girls isolated themselves from the group at various points but nothing too dramatic happened. Its funny as the vast majority of them (not all) will never have particularly celebrated Christmas with their families, especially not something quite this flamboyant with food and presents. But seeing what can happen in a family of people who love each other makes them start to miss what potentially could have been, awakens their knowledge of how their parents have failed them and so they get sad. But as I said, it wasn't too horrific although a few hugs were needed.

Things have greatly settled down in the home, and even though our numbers have gone down to 10, things just feel so much better. When Salustio and Yani leave things don't just go crazy like they used to, and the vast majority of hte people who used to pick all the fights have now left. The main concern at the home is now the financial situation. The director has said that the whole ministry has only got 3 months in which it can survive unless the financial situation starts to improve, and we are certainly not taking in any more girls for precisely that reason. Anyone intersted in helping with this potential horrific situation should go to the new Operation Restoration website http://www.ywambolivia.org.uk/ where you can also see the new sponsorship program that has been set up for both the girls and the boys. This will hopefully be an amazing way of bringing in more support for the wondeful work that goes on here.

Merry Christmas everyone! I hope to hear from you all soon.