The Cycle of Life

For me, one of the blessings of being in someone else’s home, culture, country, house of worship etc. is having my eyes opened to another way of seeing, another way of interpreting life and its events.  Oftentimes I come away enriched, able to see more clearly or at least experience more deeply.  This is very true for me in my experiences of death while here in Bolivia.  

I have seen very dear loved ones leave this life both from a distance in the United States, and also here in Cochabamba.  I have accompanied people in their sorrow as they have lost family members.  Coming into mission, I never knew death would be such a prevalent part of my time.

At the end of St. Francis’ life, he wrote a canticle praising God and all Creation, and at the very end is the most curious part to me.  “ Be praised, my Lord, for our Sister Death, whom we must all face. I praise and bless you, Lord, and I give thanks to you, and I will serve you in all humility.”

 

In referring to death as a sister, he implies that death is like part of our family, and in a way it is.  To what family does it not visit?  To what family does it not greatly affect? Yet, there is something hopeful in Francis’ words, giving thanks and recognizing that Sister Death takes us on to a different life, to the source of all Good, Love and Joy.  Death is NOT the end, it is a transition.

For many people in Bolivia, this transition of death is marked by wearing all black for a year and usually visiting the cemetery on Sundays, bringing flowers to the grave and praying.  The poor are also always present at the cemetery, usually young boys or adolescents, people will walk around offering to pray and sing or even play music for the deceased loved one.  I have witnessed many people offer these prayers and songs and I’m touched by them every time.  In return the people visiting give some money to the people praying as a gesture of appreciation.  Of course family members visiting pray too, but the way I see it, it is a way for people who might never otherwise have an interaction to share a moment of accompaniment in times of grief and sorrow, feelings every human being knows no matter where they come from or where they live.  There is something in the giving of prayers, in sharing those difficult moments that is beautiful to me.

Looking back on the last 12 months, many of the memories that stick out to me are around death and the sorrow is heavy to carry, which is why I don’t think we should ever carry it alone.  In mourning, there is also accompaniment by our community, our friends, our family, and that is what impresses me the most—the love that shines through, the love shared with the person who has passed on and the love shared by the ones who remain in this life.  One of my favorite books is Tuesdays with Morrie, and one of the many wise things Morrie said about death was the following:

“As long as we can love each other, and remember the feeling of love we had, we can die without ever really going away.  All the love you created is still there…Death ends a life, not a relationship.” P174

As we honored the dead for All Souls’ Day and All Saints’ Day the 1^st and 2^nd of November in Cochabamba, I was reminded of the truth in that statement, “all the love you created is still there”.  Many people prepared tables in their homes with the favorite foods of the deceased, many more visited the gravesides with flowers and prayers, and memories were shared.

Something different that happened this year is that a group of people wanted to remember the souls of the indigenous people who lost their lives in the process of marching from the jungle to the high altitude of La Paz protesting the construction of a highway through their protected territory and national park.  Outside my office they set up a table with pictures and food as a way of honoring the people who passed away and praying for them.

If you have lost a loved one this past year, my sincere prayer and hope is that you receive peace and cherish the love you have with that person because that love never dies but is always with us.

5 Things I’m Grateful for Today: the ability to be in Cochabamba and experience the many traditions around death and honoring the dead; being received into people’s homes with such open and loving arms; the chance to change and grow; hugs; more hugs; witnessing families who take care of each other.

They paved paradise and put up a parking lot

I find myself recently reminded of the words from the Joni Mitchell song “Don’t it always seem to go that you don’t what you got till it’s gone…” It’s true, isn’t it? In Absence is where I often encounter how much I appreciated someone or something. I could talk about many people, but today I’d like to talk about my neighbors who have moved away, the kids I often talked about (even sometimes complained about their noise or pestering) who have shared the building I live in.

When a child gets a really bad burn and doesn’t have the resources to get all the proper follow-up treatment or surgeries, they often end up in a program that helps Bolivian children in their recovery and recuperation. This program used to have its facilities in the building I live in, but recently they finished the construction of a house, with lots of space and built just for them, which means that they no longer are my neighbors, and I miss them, oh how I miss them.

I miss walking in the door and being greeted by loud shouts of “NORA, NORA, NORA!” or depending on who is there “MORWA, MORWA, MORWA!” accompanied by arm waving and dancing. I miss going into the hallway to go to the bathroom from my room and having a ball kicked by me because I’ve unknowingly walked into a soccer game. I miss cleaning my room and having so many helpers just because they like to help not because I ask them…and then those that don’t help play make-believe cars running around the ground with my shoes on their hands

I miss all the hugs and kisses. I miss baking cakes together for peoples’ birthdays and seeing the eagerness and joy in their eyes at being able to participate in the process and enjoy the fruits of their labor afterwards. I miss their silly jokes and hair styles. I miss the help in the garden. I miss seeing them grow month to month..

I miss the energy, the LIFE they gave this place, the LIFE they gave to me. Sure I complained about the noise super early in the morning, or the nagging, but the truth of the matter is that these neighbors of mine made all the difference to me. They made it “home”. That aspect has gone with them, now it feels like a building in the middle of the city.

When we chat with friends or family, we may ask how work is going, how family is, how our hobbies are, but it’s rare that someone asks you upon meeting or reconnecting, “How are your neighbors?” Despite this, it’s actually a pretty important part of our lives, or at least it can be, and if it’s not, why not? Having a good relationship with my neighbors helps me feel more connected and increases my sense of belonging and security. Since I am coming upon the end of my time living here, maybe this is good as it helps me to disconnect. I still miss them though. “Don’t it always seem to go that you don’t what you got till it’s gone…”

5 Things I’m Grateful for Today: the two plus years I’ve had to be a neighbor to the kids recovering from burns; the cereal Craklin’ Oat Bran; music that lifts my spirit and makes me dance; getting 3 pineapples and a little watermelon all for less than $2 this morning at the market; my friends and family who bring me so much love and joy, thank you!

Seeing the Beauty in Life

I don’t realize how good I have it. I’m not talking about just today, a Thursday in September, I’m talking about every day of my life so far.

Recently I had the opportunity to accompany a friend who is a Christian Brother, and a small group of volunteers from Argentina on a home visit. The Christian Brothers tend to work in education, and when they came to Cochabamba, Bolivia they realized that they couldn’t tackle education without addressing the population of kids who don’t go to school or don’t go frequently because they are working on the streets in the very large outdoor market in Cochabamba.

Why are kids working on the street and not in school? Poverty is the main reason. If mom and/or dad don’t earn enough to feed, clothe and house the kids, the kids need to work. It’s not always that simple. Sometimes kids don’t only work on the streets but also live on the streets and oftentimes the push factors for kids include violence within the family and lack of money to care properly for the kids. My friend explained that some kids fall behind in school because they don’t have the money to buy the books (they have to buy books each year) and they’re too embarrassed to tell the teacher for fear of being reprimanded or looked down upon, so they stop attending school. Each case has its own circumstances, I’m just giving some examples.

After getting to know so many kids who work in the market, the Brothers also get to know their families if possible. We went to visit the family of a set of brothers who both worked. We started out in the market and it took maybe a half hour or a little more to get to the end of the line of the public transportation. When we got out of the car (like a bus, but it’s a minivan with a route), this is the scenery we saw

We walked for about 45 minutes with a drink stop before we reached the house. This included walking up a very steep hill on dirt roads and then descending a mountain-side, also very steep, and through the brush and cacti. My friend explained to us that the kids in the family have to walk all that way every day to go to school and the mom has to walk that in order to bring home any groceries or really anything. Oh! And she has a baby on her back while she does this.

When the six of us arrived, they greeted us with smiles and glasses of a no-name brand soda. There were not seats for everyone, so she put a blanket down for some to sit on. The boys’ little sister showed us her homework, while the two teenagers from Argentina went to play soccer in the dirt with the brothers and a couple of their friends.

The house they live in is rented. Its walls are not extensive enough to cover the whole house, and I can only imagine what it is like at night when the slight wind we feel in the afternoon becomes brisk and stronger. The mom and her husband have been able to buy a plot of land even further out, but it is theirs. They want to build a house but construction materials are especially expensive right now so they have to keep paying rent.

The Brother and his coworker brought seeds to share with the mom because she is taking advantage of the very small plot of land in front of the house (maybe 10 ft. by 50 ft) to plant onions, beans, potatoes, swiss chard and other vegetables for both family consumption and potentially to sell at the market. Currently the mom sells fruits in the market when she can. This requires getting to a fruit drop-off location at 3:30am and camping out a spot on the street in the market, because if she doesn’t get there that early, someone else will have taken the spot and she won’t have a place to sell.

Can I imagine being one of her kids and having to go work in the market that takes more than an hour to get to, and also go to school and do my homework, and get home before dark ideally? Can I imagine what it would be like to be the mother trying to find a way to care for her kids and make sure they go to school, but at the same time struggling to get them food, clothing and school supplies? All this while having to walk up and down a very steep hill/mountain-side with unsteady footing every day (good muscle development, that is for sure). The short and simple answer is “no”, no I cannot even imagine what my daily life would be like.

As I started out saying, I don’t even realize how good I have it. Not only do I have enough to eat, I have extra. I have plenty of clothes and books to read and learn from. I have a roof over my head and it may leak but I don’t get wet. I never had to walk more than 5 minutes to catch the school bus (because I had a free bus that picked me up and brought me back home every day). I may walk a good distance carrying my groceries but a bus is there if I really need to take it, for me walking with a heavy load is a chosen exercise—ha, what a novelty.

All in all, I learned a lot in that one afternoon, and I most enjoyed seeing the joy in the kids’ faces while playing soccer. Kids love to play, no matter where you are. Adults do too, but we’re less likely to admit it and unabashedly show our excitement. Hopefully I can remember them the next time I get stressed or worried about some deadline or task, and remember how beautiful life is in its simplicities.

5 Things I’m Grateful for Today: having a hammer and a screwdriver to unclog the shower drain because I have a shower (that family does not); my health; visits from four family members in August; enjoying the last bit of my favorite cereal that I received in the mail from a dear friend as a surprise birthday gift; my friends who make me laugh and bring such joy to my life.

Torture

Living in Bolivia and working in the radio programs aimed towards raising awareness and dialogue around social and environmental issues, teaches me something new every week. This past Tuesday was International Day in Support of Victims of Torture and as in the majority (if not all?) countries of Latin America, torture is a part of Bolivia’s recent history and some argue there are incidents in the present as well. We did an interview with a Bolivian non-profit that works in rehabilitation and therapy for people who have been tortured either physically or mentally.

Under international law torture is a crime and cannot be justified in any situation, because as the UN states, it “seeks to annihilate the victim’s personality and denies the inherent dignity of the human being”. In order to help people understand the reality that there are many men, women and children living today who have been tortured in some way, every year on the 26 of June there is a worldwide campaign to share about torture practices and their effects, as well as put pressure on governments to act against torture.

An example from Bolivia: In the year 2000 a 19 year-old male was detained under the law regarding the controlled substances and coca. According to information published in the national press, two times a week he went through what could be called “the pulling exercise” where two people sit on top of the person and two others pull the person. It was indicated that this exercise is practiced in the early stages of detention in order to get information. This practice was learned in formation at the School of Americas in Georgia. The detainee started coughing up blood as a result of this treatment and was given medicine for tuberculosis without a diagnosis and eventually went to a public hospital where he died within two weeks.

Whether the guy did horrendous deeds or not, it strikes me as cruel and unusual punishment, something I’m grateful to say I was taught at an early age in public schools is not only wrong but unconstitutional. This is an extreme example because there are plenty of people who are alive and functioning who have gone through tremendous experiences no human being should have to go through; they’re in Bolivia and they’re in the United States too.

Another example less drastic comes from a friend of mine. He told me the other day that in the 50’s he was teaching religion at a Catholic school and accompanied one of the Franciscans to his friary at lunch time. When they arrived, there were a group of political activists who accused my friend of being against them and a spy. As a result, they seized and held him captive for a week, which included not only verbal but also physical abuse in order to get information from him, of which he had none since he had nothing to do with the politics. They let him go, but he said it was quite an experience and still to this day as an 82 year-old man, he gets pain in his neck where they hit him.

I’m hopeful that with time there will be less and less stories like these because political parties, law enforcement, militaries etc. will not break this international law, and more importantly moral code. I think it starts as kids, learning that violence in words or deeds is not the best or “only” option to handle things. The toughest part is probably breaking the cycle because the effects can be life-long. I maintain hope!

5 Things I’m Grateful for Today: hot water in the shower; a new cake recipe that is delicious; progress made in various projects; sharing a good meal with good conversation; one more day.

Fly Like a Bird

Sometimes we find ourselves in the right place at the right time and things come together that we could never have planned or thought of at the start of the day. Being a part of the radio shows allows me to contact a lot of different people asking for information or for an interview, which has opened up many great conversations.

Recently I met José, a biologist who teaches at the university and is a bird expert. For those of you who aren’t bird fanatics, it just so happens that there is an International Day of Birds (or migratory birds, depending on which source of information I read) and this year it happened around the second weekend in May. José agreed to come speak on the radio show about birds, and it was really very eye-opening.

Bolivia is extremely rich in biodiversity. Despite its smallness in size, it is in the top eight countries in the world in biodiversity. According to online sources there are 1,448 species of birds in Bolivia. While on the air the biologist invited us all to go to the local manmade lake the upcoming Saturday for some bird watching. My Franciscan friend and I agreed it would be a perfect opportunity to take the kids from the social center to see.

As a reminder there is a group of kids recovering from bad burns who live in the same building as me and they’re constantly looking for ways to get out and be active outside these 4 walls. Of course when I proposed the idea of going to the lake to see birds and walk around, they jumped at the idea.

 

 

We got there later than is ideal for bird watching, but we were able to see some. We learned that many species now don’t come to the lake anymore. A major part has to do with the contamination (it’s quite bad) and another factor has to do with the changes in climate that we are experiencing. It’s one thing to hear about the changes but it’s another to actually see, hear and smell them.

 

The kids participated in a drawing competition and in the end everyone went home with a little backpack with goodies inside. They really enjoyed being at the lake and learning about the birds and we made up over half the people there so both the planners of the event and we were happy. Making my parents proud, I made sure the kids all said thank you at the end!.

 

5 Things I’m thankful for today: meetings that are productive; jumping rope; pictures of the kids in my extended family which remind me of them; warm blankets at night; access to delicious exotic fruits like maracuyá.

Carnaval en Bolivia

We all know how the stores in the United States thrive on holidays to sell us more things and just can’t wait to start advertising the next holiday before the upcoming one has even finished? Well here in Bolivia I was reminded of that with the transition between Christmas and Carnaval, which is the time leading up to Lent. This year’s Carnaval festivities were different from the past two years because I spent them more locally with smaller groups of people in work and neighborhood settings.

At the Social Center, on the Friday before Ash Wednesday there was a group effort to make enough food for 40 people to having overflowing lunch bowls, blow up lots of balloons, decorate with streamers and confetti etc. After several hours of preparation, a group of workers and volunteers of the Social Center got together for a group-singing of “coplas” which are like poems put to music, with repeated verses, and they are often silly or make fun of people, sometimes flirtatious, and also are ways to comment on social injustices in a more indirect way. When marginalized people don’t normally have an opportunity to express the struggles they faced, coplas were acceptable ways to do that. The idea is mainly to focus on strengthening relationships within the community.

 

 

Traditionally, the Anata is an Andean celebration that occurs at the time of the rainy season and the first harvests, which also coincides with Carnaval. It is a celebration of Thanksgiving for the harvest that the community has been given and asking for blessing that the next year be a prosperous one for the community or social group with whom you celebrate Carnaval.

 

We stood and sang many coplas about our group of people involved in the Social Center and of course there was dancing involved and a lot of laughter. Once we finished singing each person took a small cup of rubbing alcohol and a handful of a very colorful mixture of confetti, pieces of fruit and little sugar candies. The meaning behind the different parts of this confetti mixture have to do with the friendship and the joy it brings us, that our relationships be filled with sweetness and not bitterness, and all the colors representing the joys of life. With our alcohol and confetti in hand we went around the center sprinkling each and asking God for blessings in all areas of our work and for all the people who come through the social center.

 

 

Not very long after, the water fights began. It mostly happens between males and females but eventually turns into everyone soaking everyone. We did pause to eat lunch but not long after the mission to completely soak every person took off yet again. It is a big part of the tradition here in Carnaval and can be a lot of fun if you are prepared and willing to access that playful inner child.

Another Carnaval celebration I was able to participate in was in a neighborhood community and involved a small parade of the kids from the neighborhood dressed up in costumes. I was taken by some of the costumes I saw including several smurfs and characters from the movie Avatar.

 

 

 

The kids really loved dressing up, dancing around, and processing for all to see. There was also a time afterwards for the adults to sing and dance, which no one is ever too old for.

 

While I did not participate in a any big parades, I got a more personal community experience of Carnaval this year, and I enjoyed it very much. Of course there are positive and negative sides to Carnaval, but I try to not lose sight of the original intentions of the celebrations and gatherings—thankfulness, re-establishing right relationships with each other and with the land, building community, and preparing for a time of renovation during Lent.

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5 Things I’m thankful for today: meeting fascinating people who humbly share their incredible stories with me; our beautiful aphid-free broccoli in the garden, thanks to a homemade chamomile spray; watching little kids dance; my dad, since today is Father’s Day here in Bolivia; and the examples of solidarity and radical love set by people like Luis Espinal and Oscar Romero, who were both assassinated this week 32 years ago.

Life lessons from a Mexican and a Man in a wheel chair

 

Recently I have been taught or re-reminded of what the important things in life are, and by two very different people. I don’t know if any of you have ever read articles by a newspaper journalist in Mexico by the name of Catón or Armando Fuentes Aguirre, but a coworker passed along to me an article of his in response to an edition of Fortune magazine in which the world´s richest people are listed. The original article is in Spanish, but I have translated it roughly into English, not claiming to be exact, but close enough that you get the idea. Here it is…

"I intend to sue the magazine "Fortune", because I was the victim of an inexplicable omission. The magazine published a list of the world's richest people, and in this list they did not show me. They listed people such as the Sultan deBrunei, and even the heirs of Sam Walton and Takichiro Mori. They also include personalities like Queen Elizabeth of England, Stavros Niarkos, and the Mexican Carlos Slim and Emilio Azcarraga.

But I am not mentioned in the magazine.

And I'm a rich man, immensely rich. And if not, then look: I have life, which I received and do not know why, and health, which I maintain but I do not know how.
I have a family; an adorable wife who in giving her life to me, she became the best part of mine; wonderful children who have given me nothing but happiness; grandchildren with whom I practice a new and joyful form of parenting.

I have brothers who are like my friends, and friends who are like my brothers.
I have people who sincerely love me despite my faults, and people I honestly love despite my own shortcomings.

I have four editors each day to thank because they read what I write poorly and make it into something good.

I have a house, and in it many books (my wife would say I have many books, and among them a house).

I have a bit of the world in the form of a garden that every year gives me apples that would have further shortened the presence of Adam and Eve in Paradise.

I have a dog that will not sleep until I come home and who treats me as if I were the owner of the heavens and the earth.

I have eyes that see and ears that can hear; feet for walking and hands that can touch; a brain that thinks of things that have already occurred to others, but for me they are brand new.

I own the common inheritance of men: happiness for sharing and enjoying, and sorrows that unite me with others who are also suffering.

And I have faith in God who loves me infinitely.

Can there be greater riches than mine?

Why, then did the magazine "Fortune" not put my name in the list of the richest men on the planet? "
And you, how do you consider yourself? Rich or poor?
There are poor people, so poor that the only thing they have is...MONEY"

For those of you Spanish speakers,I am listing the original article at the end of this entry, which is of course written better. I really appreciated the way Catón challenged the concept of richness in a creative, amusing and relatable way. It is true, that no matter who we are, how dirty our feet are, what job we have or don’t have, there is a common experience in all our lives of joys and sorrows; we all have them.

 

It took a Bolivian man to demonstrate to me an example of what I think is the most beautiful part of this ¨common inheritance¨ of joys and sorrows, and that is SHARING them. For the past two months or so, there have been a group of other-abled people camped outside the office of the Franciscan Movement of Justice and Peace.

The group ranges from people of the third generation to teenagers and little kids, all of whom have some sort of disability or are a close family member of someone who does. They are there in support of another group marching to La Paz, asking that the government follow through on providing social services or support for people with disabilities, in the form of money. The government says they are using the money in other ways to support them and they do not have enough to give financial support to everyone.

So each day that I go to Justice and Peace to work, I pass by and greet the people camped out in vigil there. Just the other day I was leaving and a man in a wheel chair called out to me. I turned around and went back to where he was sitting with a bucket in his lap. He put his hand in and pulled out a heaping portion of grapes and as he handed them to me said, “Of all the things I’ve learned in my life, I know that whatever we have, however small, we must share with others”.

 

I smiled at him and thanked him very much. I am not sure which provokes which: the joy that one has motivates them to share it with others, or the act of sharing brings both people joy? Either way, I was touched by his random act of kindness and I agree that sharing is one of the greatest most uniting acts, whether we share our sorrows or our joys, our abundance or our scarcity.

Artículo de Armando Fuentes Aguirre (Catón)
Me propongo demandar a la revista "Fortune", pues me hizo víctima de una omisión inexplicable. Resulta que publicó la lista de los hombres más ricos del planeta, y en esta lista no aparezco yo. Aparecen, sí, el sultán deBrunei, aparecen también los herederos de Sam Walton y Takichiro Mori.

Figuran ahí también personalidades como la Reina Isabel de Inglaterra, Stavros Niarkos, y los mexicanos Carlos Slim y Emilio Azcárraga.
Sin embargo a mí no me menciona la revista.
Y yo soy un hombre rico, inmensamente rico. Y si no, vean ustedes: tengo vida, que recibí no sé por qué, y salud, que conservo no sé cómo.
Tengo una familia, esposa adorable que al entregarme su vida me dio lo mejor de la mía; hijos maravillosos de quienes no he recibido sino felicidad; nietos con los cuales ejerzo una nueva y gozosa paternidad.

Tengo hermanos que son como mis amigos, y amigos que son como mis hermanos.
Tengo gente que me ama con sinceridad a pesar de mis defectos, y a la que yo amo con sinceridad a pesar de mis defectos.

Tengo cuatro lectores a los que cada día les doy gracias porque leen bien lo que yo escribo mal.

Tengo una casa, y en ella muchos libros (mi esposa diría que tengo muchos libros, y entre ellos una casa).

Poseo un pedacito del mundo en la forma de un huerto que cada año me da manzanas que habrían acortado aun más la presencia de Adán y Eva en el Paraíso.

Tengo un perro que no se va a dormir hasta que llego, y que me recibe como si fuera yo el dueño de los cielos y la tierra.

Tengo ojos que ven y oídos que oyen; pies que caminan y manos que acarician; cerebro que piensa cosas que a otros se les habían ocurrido ya, pero que a mí no se me habían ocurrido nunca.

Soy dueño de la común herencia de los hombres: alegrías para disfrutarlas y penas para hermanarme a los que sufren.

Y tengo fe en Dios que guarda para mí infinito amor.

¿Puede haber mayores riquezas que las mías?

¿Por qué, entonces, no me puso la revista "Fortune" en la lista de los hombres más ricos del planeta?"
¿Y tú, cómo te consideras? ¿Rico o pobre?
HAY GENTE POBRE, PERO TAN POBRE, QUE LO ÚNICO QUE TIENE ES... DINERO.

5 Things I am grateful for today: opportunity to share lunch with a friend; recovery of a Franciscan friend; fresh smelling clean clothes; pictures of my cousins´kids that make me happy whenever I look at them; getting running water back.

December, the month of gatherings

December has been a great month, full of gatherings for celebration and for mourning. The month started out with several deaths both here in Cochabamba and at home in Virginia, so there was a lot of sadness but also a whole lot of comforting and accompanying. One thing I admire about the rituals around death here in Bolivia is the immediate care and tending-to that friends and family provide. In addition to the wake taking place normally the same day as the death and the burial the day after, there is a mass 9 days after the death (for people who are Catholic) to again come together and honor the person’s life and comfort their loved ones.

While I was not present with my family for the death of my grandpa, I was there in spirit and was amazed at how much people came together to comfort my extended family—thank you to those of you who were there! The unity and caring for one another that comes out of experiences of loss shows me the beauty of the human spirit, and that is something we cannot forget. Not ever.

There were also many birthdays in December and here in Bolivia, a girl’s 15th birthday is particularly special because it marks the transition into a new phase of life. Not everyone likes to have a big party (fiesta de quince años) but some girls choose to celebrate with lots of people and beautiful dresses etc. One of the girls who has been staying at the Social Center recovering from bad burns, asked me to be the “madrina de torta” for her 15th birthday party. What does that mean? I would provide the cake for her party. I’ve made a cake before with some of the kids from the center and since we’ve known each other for quite a while now and have a good relationship, I agreed, thinking it would be for maybe 15 or 20 people. I was mistaken…later I found out that up to 70 people were expected, and being stubborn in wanting to make the cake instead of buying it, I had quite an experience of being madrina!

 

 

Three of the kids helped me out a lot with the cake and in the end it all worked out, but what a labor of love it was. I was so happy though to see her all dressed up in her fancy dresses, surrounded by people who clearly admired her courage for continuing to live her life and overcome adversities daily. The reason she is here is that she got electrocuted one day herding sheep. The electric company had not properly protected the cables and she stuck her stick into the grass and struck the cable which knocked her out completely and made her lose her arm and parts of her toes, among other complications. She continues to play basketball whenever I take them to the court and is definitely enjoying being a teenager. She teaches me that when the unexpected takes something away from you, that doesn’t mean that life ends there, rather you adjust and continue on.

 

Since it is the end of the year we went out with the group of volunteers of the radio program sponsored by Franciscans International-Bolivia, “Onda Verde” as a thank-you for their service. It was nice to be able to celebrate the 41 programs we put on in this year 2011. Here is a picture of almost all of us from Onda Verde.

 

Three months ago we started a second radio program in conjunction with Maryknoll, in which we talk about social and environmental issues. The show is called “Pulso” and is in a different radio station, Pio XII. Here is a picture of us in the studio.

 

Being December, we also had many Christmas celebrations, one taking place at the final soup kitchen Saturday lunch of the year. There were over 200 visitors for lunch, and beforehand there was an enactment of the Nativity story by the guests and we also had a carol singing competition between the boys, girls, women and men. It was fun to watch how some people got really into it, and even I got to learn the songs and dance around in a circle with the girls.

 

 

 

Here is a picture of “Mary” and “Baby Jesus”.

 

One of the Christmas traditions in Bolivia is dancing before the baby Jesus in the Nativity set, which I had been hearing about since last year but never actually seen. This year I got the opportunity to watch both kids and adults gather from the neighborhood and while some were drinking hot chocolate and eating buñuelos, others were playfully dancing and bringing each other before the baby Jesus.

 

 

It was so different than anything I had seen before, because the kids were not surrounded by toys as I usually see on Christmas morning, rather playing together and dancing with the focus being Jesus. A Christmas tradition I find a lot of value in and am grateful to have been a part of.

5 Things I’m thankful for today: health; safety of my loved ones; dancing; the new babies in-formation that will join my extended family this year; the hospitality of friends.