I thought this year was going to be hard. My first Christmas away from home, I had no idea what to expect. No family traditions? No lights on the beach? No decorating the house? No candy canes?! Well, yeah I did miss all that. But this was by far the best Christmas. I didn’t wrap a single gift. I didn’t receive any gifts under the tree. I didn’t deal with the madness of the holiday. And I didn’t have to freeze from the cold! What did I do? ... spent it what I love doing most.
Christmas Eve morning we woke up bright and early to begin a busy day. We headed down the street to meet a few other volunteers to help pass out gifts to some neighborhood kids. A select few homes were chosen to be part of this distribution of gifts, clothes, and food. Homes and families that were in obvious need of help this year. We went around, house to house and passed out gifts to parents and children. The Minister of Youth in Honduras was present and so were his media and a local news crew. Not sure if this was out of the pureness of his heart, or just a publicity stunt, but an interesting morning indeed.
Around lunch time, Rafael picked us up and we headed to a campesino village in Jutiapa, about an hour out of town. He had prepared food ahead of time to hand out to the local children. We spent the afternoon there, then back to El Porvenir for the remainder of the evening. We put together some last minute gifts for the kids in the kinder and had an amazing dinner at Charlie and Amalia’s. Rice and beans, pico de gallo, potato salad and of course, tamales. Whats a Christmas without tamales? Janna and I headed to Christmas Eve service, which all I can say was interesting. A service I will never forget.
Christmas morning I woke up to sunshine. Sat on the porch for a few minutes to enjoy the beach, on Christmas! Perfect. We had planned a day full of eating, watching movies and relaxing at the beach. Breakfast began with cinnamon rolls and pancakes. Movie time then to the beach! Back to make some fries, puppy chow and some more movies! Mmm, all this food ive wanted for so long now, so good! Its actually a bit ridiculous the amount of food we ate that day.
Sunday was another jam packed day. This is Santa day with the kinder kids! We headed over to Charlie and Amalia’s to start cooking all the food at about 8:30 in the morning. About 12:30 we rounded up the kids in Charlie’s pickup truck and brought them to the house. Charlie dressed up as Santa and each kid received a toy from him. Some were thrilled, some were scared, others had NO idea what was going on. Rice, chicken, apples, cookies, cake and candy, soon they were wound up. Each kid got to choose a pair of shoes, which they were very ecstatic about. Ronal came up to me after so excited to show me the pair of shoes he picked out. I took him home afterwards on bike, when his brother rode up besides us. Before he could say anything, Ronal shouts out to show him his new shoes.
It was a perfect Christmas. Reggaeton blaring through the streets of El Porvenir. Neighbors cooking tamales in each and every house. Families on their porches. Kids out playing. Christmas songs on the radio. Church nativity plays. My first Christmas away from home, yes, I did miss my family and friends. But, I wouldn’t have changed it for the world.
“Alabanzas al Rey” by Marcela Gandara
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