New Year's in Mexico!

After working our butts off the whole month as tíos y tías, all the volunteers got a few days off at the end of December. Along with a few other real good volunteer friends, I basically sprinted away from the home to San Cristobal de las Casas, a city in the Mexican state of Chiapas. It was time to travel and have some FUN. My American mind enjoyed the fact that I actually headed NORTH to get to Mexico- weird.

I was surprised by how different Mexico was than Guatemala. There was a different feel- I could tell there was more money in Mexico, and I actually felt safer in Mexico than I do in Guatemala (although I'm sure it depended a lot on what part of Mexico I was in). Plus, the streets were so pretty all decked out with the little flags! I'm sure there is an official name for them but I'm not cultured enough to know what it is... ;)

Flaggage. Loved it. I want them in my house.

We spent the first full day we had walking around and exploring the city. San Cristobal de las Casas is a really nice place... I felt like I could have been in America. It's a place where Mexicans go for vacation, and I liked the absence of the true "tourist" vibe. The streets were clean, there were organic trashcans, and I didn't hear any catcalling. I was impressed! We saw a lot of pretty buildings, monuments, and churches, but here are some pictures of my favorite ones.

Iglesia del Cerro de Guadalupe

Iglesia de Santa Lucia

The next day was Adventure Day, woooohooo. We took a tour of nearby Sumidero Canyon, which was absolutely beauuuuutiful. It was incredibly relaxing just hanging out in the boat cruising along. I think at the end of the day I'm much more of a nature rather than city girl. I was so shocked when there was a real life crocodile just chilling out sunning on the bank! I had NO IDEA there were crocodiles in this part of Mexico, especially so far up a river. It was cool. We ended a great day with some great food- chicken enchiladas with mole. A-MA-ZING. (I would go back to Mexico just for the food. But seriously...)

*heaven music*

DSALDADKLFJALDSJK. IT'S REAL.

Literally so good.

Our last day in Mexico was New Year's Eve. We spent the morning and afternoon just walking around again and spending too much money in the markets (there are some seriously beautiful things, let me tell you). After searching and searching for a restaurant for dinner that night, we finally stumbled upon the perfect one. We had the whole place to ourselves, complete with a marimba band. It wasn't touristy at all, and I had the most incredibly delicious chicken enchiladas with salsa verde I've ever had in my entire life. After we finished dinner, the restaurant owners came out and gave everyone a free tequila shot... and took them with us! They were so kind to us. I left the restaurant feeling happy, full, and with renewed faith in humanity.

all for us, yay! :)

but really, wow.

Our New Year's Eve adventure continued when we settled into a bar for the night. There was this AWESOME live band playing salsa music. I got to spend the hours leading up to midnight dancing, enjoying a delicious piña colada, and having wonderful conversations with some really great people. It was a GREAT way to ring in the New Year! It was by far the best New Year's Eve I've ever had and definitely one I'll never forget.

moving and grooving!

My time in San Cristobal de las Casas was the perfect way to end a hard month and begin a New Year. I felt very grateful to be able to have such an adventure and refreshed and ready to return back to the volunteer life of NPHG. Overall, between the friends, food, and experiences, I had a great time in Mexico and want to go back to continue exploring it. Luckily for me, I didn't fulfill my goal of drinking a Corona (one of my favorite beers) in Mexico, so it looks like I'll just haaaave to go back one day. Oh darn, life is hard ;)

Christmas Eve and Day

For me, one of the hugest sacrifices I've had to make this year was missing Christmas with my family. It was the first time in my life I wasn't home for the holidays. The whole month of December brought a huge range of emotions and thoughts, but luckily for me, I had my period of sadness early on and for actual Christmas Eve and Day, I was in pretty good shape. To be honest, we were all working pretty hard, which was good because we didn't have time to let our minds wander back to our families at home. 

As hard as it was not being home for Christmas, at the same time it was a very special experience to be at NPHG. I got to spend Christmas with kids who really needed to feel loved, and I really tried to focus on and "live out" the whole idea/spirit of Christmas more than I ever had before. It was certainly a very special, unique Christmas I will always remember. It was a sacrifice but also a blessing, one of those experiences where I received a lot more than I ever gave up :) Here's a glimpse into Christmas Eve and Christmas Day at NPHG.

CHRISTMAS EVE

Santa's Workshop! All of Casa 4 was busy wrapping and packaging up little gifts for the kids. We were quite a busy crew!

wrapping paper explosion

Christmas Eve Mass! Perhaps my favorite part of the whole experience, it was a chance to take a moment to remember the spiritual significance of Christmas... you know, the whole "reason for the season" :) I loved what happened at the end. Our priest, Father Santiago, whipped out his guitar and we all sang "Silent Night" in Spanish, English, and German. First of all, I didn't even know the guy could play guitar. Second of all, listening to everyone singing with their whole hearts gave me goosebumps. It was incredibly special.

sing it, Father!

La Pastoral! Every year the volunteers traditionally put on the equivalent of a modified Nativity skit after Mass, called "La Pastoral". Our version this year seemed to be pretty well received- lots of laughs from the kids, which is what we wanted :) I played Mary and my housemate was Joseph. The volunteers got some good laughs out of the whole ordeal too!

Mary and Joseph/Maria y Jose!

Christmas Eve dinner! After Mass and la Pastoral, it was time to dig in. Welcome to the biggest Christmas dinner table, EVER. The volunteers served all the kids, which I thought was great. While it was faaaar from my mother's cooking, it was pretty good for NPHG, especially considering how many people they were feeding. I had to laugh a little bit that I still found myself eating rice and tortillas, even for Christmas. Ohhhhh Guatemala :)

volunteers serving up love <3

feasting

El Abrazo de Paz! I don't have any pictures worth sharing from after dinner, but we had a lot of fun. In Guatemala, the tradition is to stay up till midnight and basically ring in the New Year. Oops, I mean Christmas. But it was literally the same thing. We lit a big bonfire and roasted marshmallows and hot dogs while we waited for the hours to pass by. At midnight, there were a ton of fireworks in the sky and we exchanged the "abrazo de paz", or "hug of peace". Everyone hugs everyone and wishes each other  Merry Christmas. I really liked it, and I'm so glad I got to experience this Guatemalan Christmas tradition. I certainly felt loved when I crawled into my bed that nigh.

Vela! I volunteered to do vela (the nightshift) in the section on the night of Christmas Eve with another volunteer because I wanted the "full experience". If I couldn't be with my family, I wanted to be 100% with the kids. I'm so glad I did it. As I said before, for me vela is a very symbolic thing of keeping watch over the kids. There is nothing else I would have rather done with my Guatemalan Christmas Eve. My partner and I decided to have a slumber party in the section. We let the kids put their mattresses on the floor and sleep wherever they wanted because heeeeeey, it's Christmas right? :)

I love them.

CHRISTMAS DAY
Waking Up! First of all, my heart just melted when I woke up and saw my slumber party buddy all snuggled up. Sweetest child ever. What a great start to the day!

too. stinking. cute.

Tamales! Our Christmas breakfast was delicious and traditional- tamales, mmmmm :)

drooling.

Presents! Giving=receiving. All the other volunteers who worked in the section pitched in to buy each of our boys a new pair of socks. We asked them what their favorite soccer teams were and got them socks with the logo on them so they could support their team. The boys LOVED their socks and were really excited. It was a great feeling :)

JOY :)

Chilling. After breakfast, Christmas Day was pretty... normal. Christmas Eve is a much bigger deal in Guatemala, so most of the festivities happened the day before. We spent most of Christmas Day lying outside on the grass in the sun, which was just fine with me! :)

the boyssss :)

And that, my friends, is how I spent Christmas 2013. Definitely one for the books- love, love, love.

The Holidays

As I talked about in my last blog post, in December all of the volunteers were busy working as tíos for the home. It was a definitely a little sad being away from home for the holidays, missing all the traditions, and being so busy that month, but we did our best to keep the Christmas spirit alive even all the way down in Guatemala. Here are some of the highlights from the weeks leading up to Christmas!

Thanksgiving Dinner! All the Americans got together to cook for the whole international volunteer group. It wasn't quiiiite like being at home (ex: chicken instead of turkey), but I think we did a pretty good job! It was a lot of fun teaching the Europeans about this very important American tradition.

mmmmmm. food coma

Advent calendar! Created through a joint effort between a few girls in my house, each day had a little note and piece of candy. Of course, we used the nifty Guatemalan apron as the backdrop! We had a little calendar above it that had everyone's names on certain days too.

WHEN IS IT MY TURN?!

Advent wreath! Another joint effort from a few girls in my house, it was one of my favorite things we did. I loved lighting the candles at night while I was sitting at the table. Not too bad for making it from scratch, right?

1, 2, 3, 4!

Tac-tastic Christmas tree! A souvenir from my quick trip back to the States in November for a medical school interview from the wonderful store, Target (read: Tar-gey). I know it was gaudy and cheap, but it was mine and the only tree we had and I LOVED IT so there.

Oh yes, your eyes don't deceive you. It is actually gold.

Decorated door! By yours truly. Obviously, you can tell I was an RA haha. But it's just so much more festive that way! Let me tell you, we were the envy of Volunteer Row... ;)

the full view...

crafty crafty baby

St. Nicholas's Day! One of the sweet German girls I live with surprised us all with these little packages in our shoes one morning :)

A thorough explanation of the tradition in Spanish!

YAY CANDY!

An early Christmas dinner! Our volunteer coordinator had all of us over to her house a few days before Christmas. We ate some delicious food and did a gift exchange. It was a wonderful evening that I was quite grateful for. I am continually humbled by the generosity of others!

Volunteer Christmas party, woooohooo!

Kermes: Holiday Edition

We had another Kermes in December while we were working as tíos, and as per usual, it was a great time. The theme was obviously Christmas. We kicked things off with baking sugar cookies! Every section was handed a big old lump of dough and got to have at it with rolling pins and cookie cutters. My boys made me laugh with the intricate doughy details they added on top of the cookies they had cut from the main dough. Quite the creative artists, let me tell you! 

YAY COOKIES!

working away...

"Uhhh, can we eat now?"

While the cookies were baking, we moved everyone to a different part of the room to make Christmas decorations. Construction paper was flying left and right, markers were doodling holiday cheer before my eyes. It was fun teaching the kids how to cut out snowflakes too!

intense holiday crafting

The art of snowflake making

Before we knew it, the cookies were done baking and cool enough to frost. We let the kids throw on a powdered sugar glaze concoction on top, popped in Elf in Spanish, and called it good. It was a quieter Kermes, but the kids seemed to like everything, which is all that matters. Even though the cookies weren’t quite like my mom’s sugar cookies, I liked this Kermes too! ;)

Feliz Navidad! :)

The Tía Experience

At the NPHG home, December is a little different for the volunteers. During this month, all the local Guatemalans who work as the tío and tía caregivers take vacation for a few weeks over the holidays. That means the volunteers stop their normal jobs for the whole month and step in as the tíos! I was in charge of the kids in my section like a stand-in parent that the tíos are supposed to be. You sleep with them, you wake them up, you take them to meals, you have them do chores, you play with them, and even discipline when necessary. I worked with an awesome partner in 48-hours on/48-hours off shifts, including sleeping over one night.

my second home for December

I ended up caring for a younger group of boys than my normal section of Santiago; most of the teens from my section were sent to an older group of boys for the month. I missed my boys from Santiago, but at the same time the change of pace was nice. The boys I took care of in December were truly little (and super cute). I felt like they needed a tía a lot more than some of my normal boys did. Check out some of these cute mugs :)

nomming on marshmallows at a campfire

He LOVED the cows. He watched them EVERY DAY, FOR HOURS.

my favorite small fry

such a precious child, seriously.

Mr. Smooth

I was pretty nervous leading up to December. I’d heard that being a tía was hard work, and it certainly was. The hours could drag on, the kids wouldn’t listen, etc. At the same time though, it was an experience I really enjoyed. My position as clinic assistant doesn’t provide a lot of direct contact with the kids. Thus, the intense time I spent with so many pequeños in December was great! Also, because I had a new group of boys for the most part, I got to know a lot more kids within the home.

One of my favorite parts of the tía experience was doing “vela”, or night duty. I would drag my blankets down from my house to the section, rocking sweat pants and glasses. My partner would leave and I would put on some lovely Latin bachata music until my boys fell asleep. Then, when everything was quiet, I too could snuggle up on the tía bed until the morning, when I was in charge of waking everyone up for another day. While I missed my own bed a bit on these nights, it overwhelming felt like such a position of honor to be able to have the privilege of keeping watch over the kids while they slept.

December was a tough month but I’m so glad I was able to experience working as a tía. I feel like I grew a lot personally and more than ever have a deep appreciation of what a great responsibility it is to be a parent. It’s relatively “easy” to put food on the table, but it’s really, really hard to morally educate a child to grow up to be a good, responsible, “beautiful-on-the-inside” person. For me, being a tía was a great exercise in learning to just love, love, love on the kids and others around you through the good and the bad. That’s all you can do and that’s all that matters at the end of the day!

October and November Proyectos Familiares

October and November held some great "proyectos familiares" (family projects). Here are a few pictures and a quick blurb about each of them.

The "Something New". 1 brother, 1 sister. I had my first project with some of our special needs kids. It was great! I got to work with another volunteer and we cooked up some delicious pancakes that were enjoyed by all.

happily doodling

pancake-y joy.

The "Challenge". 2 brothers, 1 sister. The boys had a lot of extra energy that they apparently decided to burn off during proyecto, but we got through it. Jenga and brownies, a classic proyecto combo for me!

even though the brother in the middle refused to take a good picture...

...we still had a good time :)

The "BIG ONE". 6 brothers. We played Spoons using Uno cards and Jenga blocks with another volunteer who was helping out. I know, I know, soooo creative and resourceful ;) At the end we all nommed on a delicious brownie. These brothers are all so nice and polite. I had a great time!

non-traditional Spoons

brotherly love

I really, really like each of these boys.

The "Mature Proyecto Amistad". 2 amigas in high school. If a pequeño doesn't have siblings in the house, they do a "friendship project" instead of a "family project" with another pequeño of a similar age without siblings. I went to Chimaltenango to meet up with these two young ladies and had a great time munching on nachos in the park, chatting it up, and just hanging out. The little baby pequeños are cute, but the nice thing about older pequeños for proyects is that you can connect with them and actually have really nice conversations. I like the variety that comes with proyectos amistades/familiares.

That's all I've got to say! A few months full of some great projects... Keep 'em coming, NPHG! :)