Merry Christmas, and Happy New Year!

Hey everyone!!

Thank you SO much for the wonderful emails, messages, packages (Adriane, Liza and TIE get a special shoutout for that one!!), CD´s (Kristen and Katie, Ashley G, Joanna B, Kerry M, Mom and Dad ... thanks for the joyous sounds!) and cards -- it has certainly brought a lot of energy to the house this Christmas season. And speaking of Christmas, this is DEFINITELY something to blog about! If all goes as planned, there will be a facebook album to accompany the list of what I was up to this December...

1. Rostro de Cristo annual Christmas party - We invited all the guards, ASP staff and their families for a huge Christmas dinner! We made rice and lentils, chifles (plantains cut super thinly), guacamole and mango salsa, this tuna-mayo dip, a basil dip, snickerdoodles, frosted sugar cookies, and more. Yum! Each house had to prepare entertainment, which you may or may not have seen videos of online. AJS danced to ¨Deck the Rooftops¨ (Glee Christmas CD) and ¨Thriller¨, Arbolito acted out ¨Burrito Sabanero¨, and Mount Sinai sang their version of the 12 days of Christmas. We ended the night with a massive dance party outside, during the first rain of the year!

2. Paseo with all three ASPs - This month, Valdivia, Manos and Semillas combined for a joint Christmas party. Each program invited eight kids to make ornaments, decorate sugar cookies, play Christmas bingo, and eat lots and lots of snacks! It was really funny to see the dynamics -- at the start, with the Manos and Semillas kids running wild, and the Valdivia children listening intently, for instance, haha!

3. Novena - our neighbor Cira invited us to be part of a Christmas novena, where we go to a different house each night for the 9 days leading up to Christmas. We started in 2 small groups -- the family of the house that was hosting inside, everyone else outside, singing a posada (pretending as if we were Mary and Joseph, and they were the inn / stable owners). Then, the ´´stable owners´´ invited us in for prayer, some songs (Campanas de Belén, Burrito Sabanero, and Los Peces en el Río were the faves) and a large snack. It was so wonderful!

4. Valdivia Christmas party - On the last day before our ten days off from program, we had a huge Christmas party for all the kids at Valdivia. We played soccer for a long time, did toilet-paper-tube reindeer and Christmas-tree ornaments, and gave out goody bags of bananas, candy and dental care supplies. What a great way to celebrate with our kids!

5. Morning of Reflection - Each month, Rostro volunteers gather as Megan leads us in a Morning of Reflection. Our theme this day was hospitality, so fitting with the Christmas story. How Mary was so hospitable to listen to God and carry Jesus, how the stable owners were so hospitable to let Mary and Joseph in. We tried to share some of that hospitality in our neighborhood, by baking for some neighbors, and giving our AJS Christmas photo to our neighbors and worksites!

6. Christmas Eve dinner and Mass - On Christmas Eve, Megan invited the boys who were staying at the shelter for Christmas over to the Arbolito retreat house for a lovely Christmas dinner. We had turkey, chicken, mashed potatoes, stuffing, green bean casserole, chocolate chip cookies, sugar cookies, peanut butter kiss cookies, and of course lots of cola! We played Ecua party games (there are so many we are learning, they are ridiculous but creative!) and listened to lots and lots of music. For Mass that night, we went to Arbolito to see the Arb volunteers in the Live Nativity. Jon was Joseph, Christina and Caitlin were shepherds, and Kipp Tierney and Brendan were the three wise men! We saw a ton of neighbors that night, and had a blast with all the boys.

7. Christmas Day dinner - Sister Annie (who runs one of our partner foundations, Damien House) invited all the volunteers over for a lovely dinner on Christmas day. We had eggplant, pasta and meatballs, salad, and sang some great Christmas carols! It was much more like a typical Christmas in the U.S., the perfect ending to our month-long celebration!

...so then ... after Christmas...

8. VACATION to Loja!! - all the volunteers took the week in between Christmas and New Year´s to vacation. Kipp, Tierney, Brendan, Becky, Aaron, Marita, Jeff and I went to Loja on Sunday, where we climbed Podocarpus the next day. It was a strenuous 5-hour hike, but we felt like Frodo along the way, so many hills! Then we took a bus to scenic Vilcambamba, where we stayed for three nights in the Hostería Izhcayluma. This tourist town (populated by 50% foreigners) was wonderful, so scenic in the sierra, with the majestic green rolling hills and mountains. We had many a fun conversations, laughs in the hostel, dinners together, hikes and bike rides, etc. Nothing can top our last day there, where we all did the Mandango loop on horseback! Holger and his dad Hugo accompanied our group for a 4-hour ride up the mountain (at times seemingly close to the edge, but those horses were awesome!). It was definitely a highlight of the trip! We left Dec 30 at night, to make it back to Durán in time for ...

9. NEW YEAR´S!! - What a fantastically fun holiday here! We (well, actually Maximo, our guard) finished the Año Viejo paper maiche creations just in time. We had a frog for Jesus (?), a pigeon (we hate the amount of pigeons here!), and a Celso and a truck (since he crashed the red truck a few months ago). It was a hilarious endeavor. Tasha and I headed out around 9pm to Alicia´s, but stopped along the way to say Feliz Año to Carlos at the dispensario, the big family from Valdivia, more Valdivia kiddies Antonio Leonardo and Kathy, etc. We finally made it to Alicia´s, where we hung out for a bit with her family. At 11:30pm, we all gathered back at the house to get ready to burn the Año Viejo. Wish I could explain to you how no one got hurt, but somehow despite the gasoline, matches, sparklers and firecrackers, no one got even a scratch! At various points, we ate -- I ended up having a salad with pork both times! We spent the rest of the night in Walter and Jesús´ house, with their family (kids visiting from the States!), the boys on the corner, and dancing with Cynthia and Silvia´s crew. It was a really really joyous and fun night, something I´ll never forget. 

...so that´s pretty much an update of where I´ve been. Does this explain the lack of Internet time? Got a bunch of emails in my inbox which I PROMISE will be answered in the next week, so sorry for the delay! But please, respond and tell me about your holidays, your New Year´s Resolutions, whatever! I loveee hearing from you guys, the support is really incredible. Working on getting these pictures up, but the internet is darn slow here right now, so we will see. Love you all though!!

xoxo,

Isa

P.S. Forgot to pass along some lessons I learned so well in 2010, and some things Im working on for 2011!

NEW YEAR´S RESOLUTIONS for 2011:

1. Pray.

2. Play -- sometimes the best way to form friendships!

3. Let go and let God (thank you Lauren Robinson).

4. Take time in silence -- time for me, time for God.

5. ´´Every day may not be good, but there is good in every day.´´ -- keep finding the good in every day.

6. Remember that at times we may feel lonely, but we are never actually alone!

7. Know that God is a light in the darkness; expect Him to come in often. 

8. Accompany others. In all their joys, struggles and their life journey.

9. Find the face of Christ in everyone, remembering that how you treat the creation reflects how you feel about the Creator.

10. Don´t ever forget that you are loved for WHO YOU ARE, not what you do!