A different kind of Christmas

Dec 25, 2008

Hello Family and Friends! Merry Christmas! Feliz Navidad!

Everything is going amazing down here! The weather is fantastic and we’re a day ahead of schedule‼ We have the roof up and half shingled and the door is on and the windows are in! We did all that work in three hours. Julia (the mother) then made us a lunch; she made us tamales which in Mexico is equivalent to our turkey dinner. Keep in mind that this family is living on 1.50 per person a day! Julia fed 22 people and the neighborhood boys! She made 2 for everyone and some kids had thirds. The amount of meat that she put in the tamales could feed her family for weeks. After our amazing lunch we went back to our dorm and wrapped all the presents we brought for the family. Thank you to all the people the donated gifts to the family! Later that night we went to the family’s house for a bonfire and we gave them their gifts. It was just magical to see the faces of the family as they opened their presents! Florencia and Salvador lit up when they opened the box FILLED with baby gifts. Christmas here is based on family. Our culture can learn so much from these people. Family here seems so important. Even though some of our families aren’t here this Christmas it was easy to feel like everyone here is our family, Julia and Oligario’s family, our group, even Santiago our translator!

Today we are going to have breakfast at ten and then Charles and Ryan have a Christmas story for us. We will be going to the the beach to celebrate our Christmas!!! Ha ha – NO SNOW! Tonight we will eat supper here and then we’ll go to Charles and Tricia’s house for a bonfire, pinata and exchange gifts that we bought for each other as a Secret Santa.

Merry Christmas‼

Jessica Derksen