Mexico - Christmas 2005
In December 2005 I returned for a very special Christmas and New Year with the community of Armonia. We were joined by 14 amazing young people from Yalalag who experienced many things for the first time (escalators, cinema, presents, etc). We all worked together to distribute many, many gifts and run many parties.
WOW!! What a Christmas... whilst most of you were holding your bellies and groaning from too much food on Sunday, we were having breakfast...more or less. Breakfast was advertised as happening at around 10, or 11 and we finally down at around half twelve! The night before Eidi and Pilar arrived back at about 10.30, Praise God, for a massive christmas dinner with all of the children from Yalalag, some members of staff from Santa Cruz community centre and a few random guerros.
Thank you for your prayers for Eidi, she is much better, the wound is beginning to heal properly and she is taking lots of rest, but the main thing being that both she and Pilar are back home.
After the christmas dinner, we sang songs to see in Christmas. We also shared how we celebrate christmas in our respective countries and villages, which was fascinating. So a late night and a late start to christmas morning. After our belated breakfast we met in the lounge of Casa Blanca to open presents. We had all made sure that all the children from Yalalag had many presents to open which was great. Only one of the children had ever received a christmas present before, and that was when he was with the Cruz family last christmas. It was so wonderful to see their delight and excitement at not just one present, but more and more! One boy, Max has been so delighted with his hat and fleece that he has barely taken them ,even in the sweltering heat today! A little girl, the daughter of Angelica who has been cooking for us, is around 2 years old and when she was given her present, she did not know what to do with it, having never received a gift before. Someone helped her start to rip the paper and she kept on closing it up and giggling as though she had broken it, it took her about 15 minutes to open it! So sweet! After the presents it was off to Wal-Mart for them to spend their money that Armonia gave them for Christmas. And then off to see King Kong at the cinema! After that it was back to Casa Blanca for a very late christmas dinner, starting after 11pm.
It has been so wonderful to spend time with and get to know the children from Yalalag, and to watch them have so many first experiences, escalators, lifts, supermarkets, cinema, presents, the list goes on and on. They are really having the time of their lives and so are we! Also, the Christmas parties all went very well, each centre holding its own in a different but each with fantastic style. With some of the money I was able to bring over, a sound system has been bought for Jalalpa, which was used for each party, and is currently in Casa Blanca belting out various things. This was very much appreciated indeed and many of the community were very touched and extremely grateful.
Anyway, I had better go to bed as it is 1 am and it is bound to be a busy day tomorrow. We still have a lot to do, a staff christmas party to organise, a graduation party for Daniel, (an Armonia employee and scholarship student who qualified recently as a lawyer) as well as visiting of many families in the poorest areas with gifts of towels etc.