A Month in Recap...

A Month in Recap

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year Everyone!

The past few weeks have been an absolute blur with all the Advent celebrations, Christmas preparations, a weeklong trip with the house and New Years.  I’m sure everyone is curious as to how we celebrate the holidays here in Nicaragua so this post will be all about the December celebrations in our home.

The first thing to note about Christmas in Nicaragua is that here Mary receives just as much, if not more, of the spotlight as Joseph. For 8 days in the beginning of advent we celebrated the immaculate conception of Jesus. We celebrated Mary’s choice to say “Yes” to the Lord and her unyielding faith in Him to take care of everything. During these celebrations, called “Purisimas”, we prayed the Rosary and sang songs of praise and thanks to Mary around a decorated shrine to her. The volunteers made a sign with the phrase “Quien causa tanta alegria? La concepcion de Maria!” which we would yell at the end of every nights celebration.

  Throughout all of Nicaragua, people were chanting and celebrating the same thing. Then came the best part: aguinaldo (treats). At the end of the night, we always got AWESOME goody bags filled with everything from sugar cane to churros (sweet hard pastry rolls) to cajetas (more sugary delights).

Aguinaldo from just 1 day! (we even got plates,  which are always needed)

After the week-long Purisima celebrations we began to have nightly “posadas. Posadas entail a reenactment of the search of Mary and Joseph through Bethlehem looking for a room. Every night another group of the home (office workers, field workers, girls houses etc.) would be responsible for dressing up a Mary an Joseph and going door to door asking for a room. At each house they would be denied a bed until they arrived at the manger we had built. The fun part about this was that the conversation was actually a song that was sung back and forth between the people inside the house and those outside. And of course we all got more aguinaldo afterwards. 

By the time the  24^th rolled around, we had already been celebrating the coming of Jesus for a full month. Although we did have a mass and a grand family dinner on Christmas eve, Christmas day itself was uneventful. 

The typical Christmas dinner: nacatamale, black coffee and white bread. 

In fact, all I did was give my kids their presents and then take a nap because I had managed a mere four hours of sleep the night before. In the states I have always spent Christmas day surrounded by family and loved ones and, yes, presents. Although I was definitely missing home at this point, I also realized that I had spent the last month celebrating Christmas the way it should be celebrated. I had exalted Mary’s “Yes”, spent time with (new) loved ones and learned even more about compassion and kindness from my boys. So yes, it was a different type of Christmas, but it was also a wonderful month of preparations.

The day after Christmas all of the children have the opportunity to go spend a month or so with their family for vacation. Most of the times they go with an elderly grandmother, cousin or older sibling who can support them for a month but not for the entire year. The next day we took all of the remaining kids (about 50) to NPH’s former home on the Island of Ometepe. The island is formed from two connecting volcanoes, one of which (Volcano Concepcion) is still occasionally active. Due to high shipping costs and threats of volcanic activity NPH moved to our current location in 2006. However, since the land is still used to grow the majority of our food and the buildings are all still standing we took advantage of it and took the kids for a weeklong vacation there. Although accommodations were a bit rustic, it was a fun filled adventure and the kids had an absolute blast.

We took full advantage of the lake surrounding the island and went to a new beach everyday for a minimum of four hours. Half of the kids are from the Atlantic coast where they grew up along rivers and the other half had grown up on the island with NPH so they were all in their element. They never got bored of the water, tiring out the volunteers with their endless capacity to play around. The rest of the time was free to spend as we found fit and we filled it with board games, movies, finding and eating coconuts, sweet limes and grapefruits from the trees nearby, and long walks to visit tios and tias who live on the island.

On my break I decided to finally visit my good friend Nancy (name changed for privacy) at her house. Although Nancy lives at NPH full time while attending university she also spent the vacation with her family. It was wonderful to meet her younger sister who she constantly talks about and hang out with her a bit. I was also able to see just what type of economic situation Nancy comes from. The simple house made of dirt floors and plywood walls made the NPH home look like a hotel. It really puts things in perspective. 

Hanging with *Nancy and her sister at their home. 

After visiting Nancy I proceeded to the small town of Altagracia to spend my break. And how does one spend a break when you are staying in a town at the bottom of a 5,000-foot active volcano? Climb it of course. So that’s just what I did all day (9 hours) Saturday. Unfortunately the volcano was covered in clouds so I was unable to see both the Atlantic and Pacific coasts of Nicaragua in one shot. However, I did make it all the way to the top and get a quick glance in the crater before rushing back down because you never know when the volcano might give a little hiccup of ash. My hamstrings are still screaming and tight as guitar strings but it was so worth it! 

At the edge of the fuming crater.