Feliz Ano Nuevo!

Happy New Year!!!! Saying that in English brings back memories of champagne toasts, countdowns, fireworks, balls dropping, and all other reminders of New years in the states. Here, it was nothing of the sort. About the time the ball was dropping, I was running around outside watching my neighbors (ALL OF THEM) set fire to massive life-size mannequins (called ano viejos, simbolizing the bad things from the past year), as my street and all others in the neighborhood, probably all of ecuador, were lined with bonfire after bonfire burning these things, as my neighbors circled around them throwing firecrackers and more gasoline on them. It was seriously the most REDICULOUS new years ever. The mental image doesn´t do it justice.

Basically, New Years was a blast. The holiday is bigger than christmas down here, and people just go all out. Before the burnings, I spent the afternoon in Guayaquil with some friends and fellow volunteers, where they had a bunch of huge stages set up with all sorts of live music, magicians, dance shoes, and childrens theatre. It was a huge party, and I even saw some of my neighbors from Duran there which was really cool. When we got back, we went to mass, and then were just out in the streets celebrating with the neighbors until the burnings. Afterwards, we went to a big cena (huge dinner with all your family and friends) at our friend Pablo´s, which quickly turned into dancing. About 2 we left his house and made our way to a dance Shalom (the music group at the church) was having, where we proceeded to dance until after 4 in the morning, when we seriously could not continue and made our way home. All in all, the day was a combination of lots of food, fire, and dancing. What more could a girl ask for?

So I know it has been a while.....you must be used to my excuses my now.... but this past month has been particularly eventful. Most notable becuase my brothers were here!!!!!!! I was just overjoyed to have them down here visiting for 5 days. I wish it could have been longer, and I think there should be rules about never having to say goodbye to family on Christmas eve, but it was definitely a jam packed trip. We spent the first day here in the neighborhood meeting some of my neighbors and the kids i work with at Valdivia, and I got to take them to Padre Damien so they could see where I work in the mornings. We took off that night though to head to Montanita, a little hippy beach town on the coast that is just really chill, for lack of a better word. We spent two days just hanging out and catching up, went surfing one day, and just had a great time. The last couple days back in Duran blur together - we had a nice dinner and climbed up to the lighthouse in Guayaquil, we spent more time with my neighbors and got a few card games in, we went to some crazy markets, and just hung out a lot. I wish we had more time, we could have been kept busy for weeks, but it was nice to just get to introduce them to my life here and my wonderful neighbors and roommates, and to get to see them and catch up. They are some pretty incredible fellows, and I really just miss them way too much.

Saying goodbye was hard, but we had some good Christmas fun to keep me distracted. Christmas Eve my roommates and I spent the morning making cookies, and then the ENTIRE afternoon (almost four straight hours) going around to all of our neighbors housing, caroling and passing out cookies and cards. Yes, we were dressed in holiday colors and I was wearing an elf hat. Yes, i still have a horrible voice. We all do. It was wonderful. The response from our neighbors was priceless, some were a little confused by the tradition and just kind of looked at us blankly, but most had the biggest smiles on their faces and really loved it. It was really cool to get to share some good ´ole US-style holiday cheer.

That night, pretty much right after we finished caroling, we went to Christmas Eve mass, which was just jam-packed as expected, and included some fun children acting. Afterwards we were invited to a neighbors (Nancy Javier and the three girls, I´ve talked about them before) for the big Christmas CENA after 12:00. Getting to join in that was really something, as it was when all of their family came over and they exchanged gifts. It reminded me a lot of Christmas at home when I was younger, and my grandfather or uncles passing out the gifts to all the grandkids and us making our little stacks of gifts. The gifts themselves were fairly simple, a couple little shirts and trinkets, one from each family that came. The kids just lit up, an the warmth one feels in such a universal environment an time of joy and family was just beautiful. It was a very humbling experience, and I was just so overwhelmed by the simple gift of getting to share this special evening with them. After the gifts, we all ate, and of course began dancing. We didn´t stay much later than 2 am I think becuase we were pretty exhausted, but the dancing continued there and at most of our neighbors´ houses until late in the morning.

In Christmas tradition (missing my own chance to sleep in the same room as my brothers awaiting Santa Claus) Dan and Frank and I dragged our mattresses out into the living room and slept there in front of our makeshift Christmas tree (cleverly made out of curtains and hanging from the ceiling), falling asleep listening to Kenny G Christmas music and chatting. It was just a great end to a great day (except that Vicki was in bed sick and really not feeling well).

Christmas day we all went to Sr. Annie´s for dinner, which was delicious. After we ate a wonderful italian feast, we sat around and sang Christmas carols. It was just a very simple but joyful gathering, and I was glad to get a little family sing-a-long like gathering.

After Christmas, that night in fact, Frank and I left for Quito, where we would spend the next five days. We had a week of vacation, so wanted to get to see the Capital and check out the incredible Guayasamin museum we kept hearing about. Of course, when we got there the museum was closed until after the New Year, which was really a bummer. But we spent the next few days getting to know the city, which is really incredibly beautiful. I like it a lot better than Guayaquil. It just has this wonderfully old and quaint feeling in part, and then just fun and modern in the other. But it is gorgeous and nestled up in the mountains surrounded by hills. We spent a lot of time walking around the historical district, checking out beautiful old churches, hiked up to the top of this hill that had an incredible statue of Mary and a great view of the city, went rockclimbing one day, went on a hunt for some awesome artisan works, spent time in the parks (I miss grass!), and made our own interpretive painting on a canvas we bought from this wonderful man we met on the street. All around, it was a great trip, and just really nice to get away from a bit.

So I guess that is pretty much all of the holiday fun. Since New Years though there have already been quite a few big occurences here in the neighbrhood. The mother of one of the girls that sometimes comes to Valdivia and is a student at Nuevo Mundo commited suicide about a week ago. She was 23-years-old, lived about a block and a half from us, and left her 8-year-old daughter Jomira motherless. I ask you to keep her in your prayers.

In lighter news, my other neighbor Nancy (different Nancy, but I have spoken of her too) got a new house! This woman´s story is a tragic one, whose husband passed about 6 months ago and has been left to raise her two daughters, but has some mental challenges and the two girls must basically take care of their mother and on´t really have any sort of life of their own. The director of the Guardaria was able to get a new house built for them becuase there old one was just barely liveable. Vicki and I were able to spend the entire day with them, emptying out their old home, and were just blown away by some of the conditions they were living in), tearing down the cane house itself, digging out the foundation and cutting down a tree, and watched them erect an entire new one where the old one stood. It was an incredible feet in one day, and really cool to see how other neighbors would just filter in as they finished their own full days of work to help finish the task.

That day I helped take some food over to another family whose house was being built also, about 2 miles away, and was just blown away. Now that the rainy season has started, the homes in this area are all in about a meter of water (luckily they are all built on stilts), and people were just wading through waste deep water which their children on their shoulders or carrying massive planks of wood and cane walls which which they are going to build this new house. Apparantly there was a giant snake in the water too (evidenced by bubbles coming up) that killed a dog that had been teachered to one of the homes not a few days before. I was really just speechless, as I was finally confronted with an image of the reality I had been plainly aware of since we got here, but with the arrival of the rainy season, finally saw firsthand.

The rainy season itself is something else. You can´t help but here the horrible rainfall and imediately think of how many of your neighbors homes are now being flooded with water. Kids from Valdivia that can´t sleep at night becuase there is a HUGE hole in the roof and are soaked all night. Yet amidst this reality, you little through the thundering rain to hear children running the streets and playing in the rain and having the time of their lives. So you can´t resist but go out and joy them, seeing their parents soaked in the doorways with smiles on their faces at just seeing their kids joy, well aware of the fact that they don´t have a change of clothes for them and will probably be drenched all through the night.

So I guess that is a basic update of my life, or at least the events in it any way. Not much on the thought train and my current ponderings, but I figured if I can get this part out first, hopefully the other will follow.

Oh! A couple really exciting projects we´ve been working on too. We are putting on a mini weekend retreat for the morning school children at Nuevo Mundo, the ones that attend the private Catholic HS and come from really affluent families in Guayaquil. We´re basically shortening the weeklong retreat we do for US schools, and hoping to educate some of these students as to the reality of life only a half hour away in the same way we aim to educate groups from home. Basically just taking our mission as a program and extending it to where it really needs to be heard. I´m really excited to see how it goes in a couple of weeks.

The other project is the proposal that DePaul (the retreat group I lead in early december) is putting together that is really getting off the ground. Really it´s all them, I just get to get really excited by looking over their proposal and watching it progress. You go team!