Christmas
time in La Unión is vastly different from any other Christmas season I can
remember. There is no snow or ice or sleet or anything resembling cold weather
whatsoever. In fact, in feels more like summer vacation than winter break.
(Which I cannot really complain about since I’m much happier to be getting a
tan than frostbite.) Honduras is not the first place to find Christmas music
filling the air or Christmas commercials bombarding the tv; decorations are
sparse and there are certainly no Honduran-Christmas cookies. But! that did not
stop us from making our own Christmas and bringing our traditions to the
middle-of-no-where Honduras.
Most
of the time I felt like I was forcing myself to believe that it was Christmas
or feel filled with the holiday spirit but thankfully, it doesn’t take much to
remind me of how much I love this season. Heather and I played Christmas tunes
constantly in our house. I put up the best decorations that I could create in
my classroom. We even had a special dinner between us foreign teachers that
included decorating Christmas cookies! Here is the quick story of my Christmas
in La Unión.
I’m
used to stores like Walmart and Hobby Lobby getting an uncomfortably early start
to fill their aisles with Christmas decorations way back in July. Here you are
lucky to find cheap tinsel strands and sporadic blinking lights. It did make my
heart smile to walk through the streets and see once-barren doors with a little
sparkle of Christmas bears, bells, or bows adorning them. I wanted to bring a
little of that Christmas cheer into my classroom so I collected as much green,
red, and white paper as I could to start decorating! I hung tinsel and lights
all around the board for that special twinkle. My students colored little Christmas
trees to cover our door and they cut out their handprints to form a wreath. I
also had a countdown until Christmas going on the door. They wrote all of their
Basic English vocabulary words on strips of paper to make paper chains. Then
for our massive Christmas tree I used seven pieces of poster paper to create it,
which even included a cute little star on top. I had some amazing glitter foam
paper that my kids were able to cut ‘ornaments’ out of and decorate the tree
with for extra dazzle. It felt magical to be inside of our classroom (and all
the other students were jealous).
All
of us foreign teachers decided to bring a beloved tradition here: Secret Santa.
We all agreed on buying three presents – the first two costing no more than 20
Lempiras, and the last one costing a maximum of 50 – for our Secret Santa, and
then picked names. I picked Heather (my roommate). For the first present I
bought her a coffee mug and her favorite candy bar. For the second gift I
bought her a cheese grater and some cookies. Then for the big-mama present I
got her a lunch tote bag, a lunchbox, and a cute little water bottle. Of course
I exceeded the price limits on every gift, but she’s my roommate! She totally
deserves it and I had a genuinely hard time controlling myself to not buy
everything in the store for her. Jake picked my name and I have to admit that
the delivery of the gifts was the best part for each one. My first present was
a Snickers bar, but he had a group of 11th grade boys deliver it
while serenading me with “We Wish You a Merry Christmas.” Then he gave me
Skittles which he had a little fourth grade boy deliver to my house; together
we had a blast popping all the bubbles in the bubble wrap that came in the bag
with the candy. Finally he gave me my own set of fireworks. Jake found a drunk
man in the street to wrap them up and while I was unwrapping the masterpiece, a
little cockroach wiggled its way out of the firework bundle. That was
definitely not something anyone, even Jake, expected to see! Normally I would
have nothing to do with fireworks because the ones in this town drive me crazy!
But we took them outside and set one off, and now I see why everyone is
obsessed with them around here. (However, Lenny almost lost his eye in the
process so we’ll have to be more careful next time.)
We
made an amazing dinner (if I may brag) together! We decided to do a kind of pot
luck style where everyone brings at least one dish to share with the group, and
it was beautiful. It was so overwhelmingly delicious, I’m not sure I can even
remember what all we ate… Kara and Lenny made shrimp salad in avocados, pumpkin
bars, and cheese, fruit, and nut plates. Cassidy made a veggie plate. Beth and
Harriet made potatoes bravas. Heather made hummus with crackers. Carlitos
brought Jamaica tea. Jake made a layered bean dip. Lori and I went to town
making a fruit pizza, deviled eggs, cheesy pretzels, and French bread with
bruschetta. As if that was not enough food for us all, we finished the evening
with decorating Christmas cookies. I made some for each of my students and for
our neighbors. I love when I get to be simply, uninhibitedly creative. What a
merry night for us all! Eating, drinking, laughing, telling stories, exchanging
presents, and decorating cookies (we even dressed up a little bit). Who knew we
could throw such an awesome Christmas party in La Unión?!
To
top everything off, the students put on a rather unique Christmas program for
the whole community. The reason I call it unique is because it’s not your
traditional Christmas program that you expect to see each year at church. There
was no play depicting the journey Mary and Joseph took to give birth to Jesus;
there were no shepherds (there was sheep though), wise men, angels, or barn
animals in a stable. And there were no
Christmas hymns! We had a much edgier Christmas program with modern music and
dance numbers, and a variety of short skits about random stories throughout the
Bible (still, none of them about baby Jesus). Here’s how it works: every year
our school in La Unión is sent the DVD of the Christmas program that the school
in Tegucigalpa put on the year before (with the help of professionals) and we
are expected to duplicate it. They send us a few things like a back drop and
costumes, but then we are responsible for doing our best, with a few minor
tweaks, with rest of the program.
All
of the elementary grades are given the task of performing a dance. Lucky for me
that meant I was to become my third graders’ dance teacher (yup, add ‘dance
instructor’ to my resume). I had to take time out of my classes schedule every
day to teach them their dance. Suddenly, dancing trumped academics. Oh boy,
where do I even begin? I had no earthly idea how to even start teaching them
how to dance! It’s a little hypocritical to ask my students to look coordinated
on stage when I have very little rhythm myself (and they don’t even have the
excuse of being too ‘white’). Thankfully I had the video to watch and mimic,
otherwise they would have been doing the YMCA, Macarena, and Chicken Dance up
on stage! The Lord clearly saw this day coming and that is why He blessed me
with a small class of only 13 little uncoordinated bodies to morph into
Honduras’ next best dance crew. But let me tell you, it was not easy. Have you
ever tried motivating and teaching little boys to dance? I am now quite
familiar with the caught-in-a-blender look. Most of the time they were more
interested in kicking each other than swaying their hips. It was the day that I
discovered bribing them with candy that everything started to come together and
I actually believed they could pull it off. Somehow we all pulled it together –
I taught my students their amazing dance, they learned the counts and steps,
and they put on their dancing shoes for the night of the big show. Right before
they went on stage, I surprised them with glow sticks to wear (which certainly
gave them the much needed boost of confidence). They were such stars! In
absolutely everything they do, they make me proud. Now also add ‘dancing’ to
the list of skills my kids have. Check them out! http://www.facebook.com/photo.php?v=10152387733070591&set=vb.511815590&type=3&theater
Thank
God for a great end to 2012. I would have never been able to tell you that I
would be spending the end of this year in Honduras surrounded by dancing
9-year-olds. I have been blessed in countless ways by these little ones and my
heart was so warm being with them for this holiday season. I cannot thank the
Lord enough for bringing me here, challenging me in new ways such as teaching
children how to dance, and then getting to celebrate little accomplishments
with my kids. It was weird not being home for Christmas but I sincerely thank
God for helping me find ways to still enjoy this time of year with my new
family and friends here in La Unión!
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