Dear Family and Friends,
Merry Christmas! I hope it’s a beautiful one for all of
you. Many of the girls will be leaving
on Thursday to spend Christmas with relatives, so we celebrated Christmas on
Sunday. I’m sure there will be more
celebrating on Christmas Eve and Christmas day, but this way everyone was
included. The festivities start at
around 6 pm. The tables were covered
with Christmas tablecloths and numerous homemade candle lanterns. There were lights everywhere, three Christmas
trees and a large nativity set. Angela played the role of Papa Noel, handing
out gifts to the girls. Each girl
received a large Italian Fruit cake, underwear, a set of new clothes, and a toy
for the little ones. The gift for the
older girls was a set of earrings. The
girls sang a couple of Christmas carols for the sisters and then the sisters
served us a great meal of chicken, potatoes, rice, salad and corn on the
cob. Anna and I passed out the Christmas
cookies for dessert and gave each of the girls a toothbrush.
After cleaning up, we all headed outside to
dance the night away. The night was
clear and warm, with a half moon and stars dotting the sky. The sisters lit a huge bonfire, cranked up
the stereo and we all danced to Bolivian music from around 7:30 until 11. It was so much fun and what an amazing
memory! Anna and I just sat for a while,
trying to take in every detail, and we talked about how very lucky we felt to
be a part of all of this. How many
people have the opportunity to dance around a bonfire in the moonlight with 58
girls and three harmanas!
The week leading up to the celebration was
very busy. Anna and I baked dozens of
Christmas cookies with the girls and everyone had a great time. On a serious note, Angela, the other Salesian
volunteer, told Anna and I that she will be going home for good on December
19. I am still trying to process what
this will mean for me, especially when Anna heads back to Germany later this
year, but I have faith it will all work out.
There is still lots of celebrating yet to
come, so I’ll let you know in a later blog how we actually spent Christmas Eve
and day. Today it is raining, so it
feels a bit more like Christmas. I was
raised in southern California, but it’s been a very long time since I
celebrated Christmas in 80 degree weather…I’m not complaining! Oh, by the way, the puppies are three weeks
old now. Their eyes are open and they
are walking. They are sooo cute! Love to all.
Feliz Navidad! Pictures to follow tomorrow!
