I am an angel!

As well as having a lovely Christmas lunch on Christmas Day, I also attended a service in my church in the evening. As I was meant to be in the drama for the kids, I got down to the church at 5.30 but was the first one there.... and I did not even take part in the kids drama, too much talking for my limited Spanish! 

However, all was not lost, I was drafted into the drama for the jovenes, playing an angel. Ok I am 30 years old and it has taken me this long to be an angel! (ok, ok so am always an angel!!) this year in Peru as seen a lot of firsts (being a clown, being an angel in the nativity etc)

The service was meant to start at 6.30 but by the time we had all stopped practicing our dramas it was 7.30 when the service started. We had some singing, then the kids did their nativity play - so cute. It was based on a mum telling her three kids the story and then acted out with a mixture of wee kids and big kids (not enough wee kids available).... they told the story of the birth of Christ including the shepherds and the wisemen.  And then they sang a little song. 

Mum and the kids

The wisemen!!!

Mary and Joseph

All singing

Then there was more singing from the congregation and then it was time for the drama for the jovenes, so my five minutes of fame! We also did the nativity scene, but unlike the kids there was no talking - it was done to music and Lidia and Airyn told the story via dance while Mary and Joseph acted their parts with the help of the Shepherd and me, the Angel!! Look at how big my wings were...... nightmare, tell you!

Lidia and Airyn - the dancers

Mary, Joseph and the Angel

All of us.

Ok, so there was a reason I told you about the size of the wings.... it is a funny but yet not funny story. But is this not what blogs are for, to tell stories of my time away and embarrass myself!

My wings were very big and I had trouble getting off the stage through the curtain without hitting things and people, so I thought it would be good idea to jump sideways off the stage, but what I did not know was that the string from the curtain had made itself round my neck, so when I jumped, I ended up with the cord around my neck and bringing the curtain down around me - always said I would bring the curtain down one day!! Ok, so it was very embarrassing for me, but actually instead of laughing straight away people were quite worried about me and someone asked me why I felt like killing myself on Christmas Day.... I could have actually died! but thankfully for you lot, I am still alive. 

Not actually quite a funny story but when you look back on it, it was funny and think its brought an end to my acting days, safer dressing up as a clown. Been in Peru 11 months and already have had 4 chances of showing my acting skills!! Why do we do silly things in Foreign Countries? 

To see more photos of the church service please click here 

Christmas Day

The Peruvians do not do anything special on the 25th December, instead it is a rest day for them (like the 26th is for us), as they have usually been to bed later due to the midnight celebrations. 

So this Christmas I spent the 25th with my fellow Latin Link missionaries in the house of Paul and Ruth Turner. There were 14 of us altogether - 4 from Ireland, 1 from Scotland, 2 from England,  1 from Australia and a English/Peruvian family (Roland and Jenny with their kids, Sammy, Ben, Hilda and Kati - visiting from Cusco).

It was a lovely day, we had the proper Christmas Dinner with crackers (and hats), melon, turkey, potatoes, many different vegetables, stuffing, christmas pudding and even custard (custard is a luxury here, you do not get it, this was brought from England).  We all helped prepare the dinner and it tasted great and the craic around the table was fun.

My Dinner

After the main course we decided to take a break before eating the desert - as we were all very full  - so we had present opening time. As there were so many of us, we did a secret santa which was a good idea. However, we all bought something for the kids, of which there were four of them - and this was fun seeing them all get excited and opening their presents, especially Kati and Hilda.

Kati and Hilda with their presents 

After present time we then sang some carols with Ruth playing the pianos for us. This was nice as we sang them in English - been singing carols in Spanish at church, but was nice to have them in English here. 

Rosemary and Paul singing their carols

It was a lovely day and was a little piece of home away from home. 

To see more pictures of Christmas Day please click here

Its Christmas Eve

In Peru the big day of Christmas is the 24th December  - this is when all families come together to celebrate. The celebrations take place usually by having a turkey dinner at midnight, though some families would just have hot chocolate and panettone. And at midnight fireworks are set off as well.

So this Christmas Eve, I spent the evening with my Peruvian family and friends of theirs. We started the evening at 9.30am with time of singing, reading the bible and praying. To me this was very interesting because I thought back to my Christmasas in Ireland where we just come together to eat and don't do this - however we do go to church Christmas morning. For me it was a special time to sit and think about the true reason of Christmas - the birth of Christ. 

After this time, we then sat down to eat our dinner, which was turkey, rice and different kinds of salads - no starters and ice cream for desert - but for that time of the night what we ate was sufficient - have never eaten my dinner that late at night. 

My Dinner

While we were eating fireworks were going off outside, it was a very loud and colourful display. One thing about the Peruvians, they love their fireworks - always going off for different reasons even during the day, which is weird since you can't see the display just hear the noise.

We finished the meal about 1.30am and were in bed at 2am... I was exhausted but enjoyed the evening. Despite the fact was missing my family back home, it was great to experience Christmas in a different culture and see how they do things here.

Christmas in Peru is very different - they get 24th and 25th off work and then back to work on the 26th.... and some people even have to work on the 24th/25th - not just those in NHS etc, but even those in the mines have to work. And its not all about presents or material things either, its about family and time spent with them - there is no commercial pressure which was nice to see. But the one thing I did miss was Carol Services which they don't have any of here.

Christmas is for kids

I came to Peru to primarily work with disabled young adults, but have also been able to experience other types of work alongside this with my church - for example going to Maca last weekend. Today was another one of these experiences - after the morning service today (Sunday 23rd) I went to a kids home with a few other people from the church for a little Christmas service.

We arrived at about 1.45 but there were no kids there yet, they were at another place, but by 2pm they were all there - about 35 of them. 

What did we do? Well we sang songs, and a drama (the same drama from Maca) however some changes were made, it did not include the kid like last time- we focused on Christmas being about food, papa noel, the tree and presents - and then we were told that that was not what Christmas was about, its all about Jesus. Again we finished it off by singing a song about the importance of Christmas. 

Singing with actions!

The boys singing

Marilla

Then Pastor Abel gave a short talk - again in this talk he emphasised that Christmas might be fun with presents, food etc but that is not what its all about. When we had finished speaking he invited the kids to pray a pray asking Jesus into their lives - which some seemed to do with joy.

Praying

After that we finished with another song and then we said our goodbyes. It was a lovely afternoon. On the way out someone introduced me to a little kid of 12 years old who spoke fantastic English -  I told her that at 12 her English was better than my Spanish....it is easier to learn another language as a child. She learnt it in America. She went to America and visited 24 different states in a few months raising money for herself and the other children in this home.  I must confess I did ask her, her name but my memory is failing me and have already forgotten it. Not good at all. But it was good to have a wee chat with someone in English - even though when I was first introduced to her, I could not think of one single English word to say, how strange!! 

To see more photos please click here 

Christmas in different countries

I left language school in September, but as an ex student I got invited back to their Christmas party today (Friday 21st). Everyone who was going had to bring a dessert which represented their country - I made and took trifle with me as this is a dessert we have every year at Christmas time.

The morning started off with us singing Christmas carols, then we had a short talk about Christmas from Peter, a student from England, who is going to Lima in two weeks time to be a missionary there. Peter and his wife were finishing their three and a half months of language school today. 

Singing

Peter 

After that the current students talked about the different traditions at Christmas time in their country - we heard about America, Switzerland (Santa Claus came out at this time), Norway, Germany, Denmark - but the funniest of all was Great Britain.

Anne (Peter's wife) who is Scottish stood up and started talking about Christmas in Scotland first of all and then the rest of Britain (so N.Ireland, England and Wales! in case you did not know). She talked about how it was tradition for the Queen of England to give a speech every Christmas Day at 3pm - then she said and wait a minute today is Christmas Day and it is 3pm - and in walked the Queen of England!

Queen Elizabeth!! aka Peter!

It was so funny, Peter (the same guy who gave the talk and was all serious, was now the Queen!).... I have never laughed so much at the Queen before in my life. Peter gave the Queen's speech and included bits about the four nations, the commonwealth nations and Peru! Then he said goodbye, made us all stand up and sing God Save the Queen - the English, Scottish and Irish (even me) sang this whole heartily but the Americans mocked it.. not every nice from our 'friends'! Ah well. The whole act was so funny.

We then heard about Christmas in Peru, had some Peruvian food and all shared the desserts from each different country - from the British Isles there was two trifles (one irish, one scottish), mince pies, shortbread and scones with jam.... lovely bit of home.  The plates were all full and there was hardly any food left.

It was good to go back to the school and see everyone especially my teachers. They had a hard job when it came to trying to teach me, but was pleased to be able to understand everything there today and have conversations with my teachers without being nervous. 

For more pictures click here

Its all over....

Last Tuesday (18th December) was the last day of Nuevas Fuerzas for the year which also meant it was my last day of Nuevas Fuerzas as it won't be starting up again til March and by that time I will be in Britain - where in Britain I have no idea, but will be there!!

For the first two hours we watched Madagascar Three.... well I did not see much of it as was doing other things, but everyone who was watching it seemed to enjoy it. 

We did not have many people from the start but more people and parents started to arrive at 3pm as that was when the chocolotada was due to start. During this time, we sang some Christmas songs and Pastor Abel spoke about the importance of Christmas, we gave out Christmas presents to the members of Nuevas Fuerzas, they swapped their secret santa presents, gave presents to helpers, had some hot chocolate and panettone as well. 

Singing

Pastor Abel

Miss Elva getting her present from Kati

Paul giving out Hot Chocolate

Alejandro and Manuel enjoying their Panettone

Diana getting  a hug from her secret santa Alejandro

This is my third chocolotada and as said in previous post apparently panettone grows on you, and I would like to say that it has, actually like it now. Not sure how many more chocolotada's I have left to experience but do not think its too many.

For me it was a bit of emotional day as it was my last day at Nuevas Fuerzas and last day seeing many of the young adults, though will be visiting some of them in January. I mentioned to Hermana Bethsaida (the pastor's wife) that I was sad as it was my last day and she said, do not be sad, be happy that you have had the opportunity to serve here and get to know the young adults and the mum's - she is a very wise person.

To see more photos of the Chocolotada please click here

Christmas means Chocolate!!

Every country has traditions at Christmas, and the tradition in Peru is Chocoltada's where you have hot chocolate and Panettone. 

On Thursday 13th December I experienced my first one at Didache, the school I teach English in.  The Hot Chocolate was lovely as it contained cinnamon as well - was not a big fan of the Panettone but have been told it grows on you - and as there will be many opportunities to taste it with all the chocoltada's am sure it will grow on me! We'll see. 

Tables were laid out and the kids sat around the table while the chocolate was given to them with instructions that it was hot and to blow on it first before drinking from it, was so cute watching them all blow into their hot chocolate. Unfortunately some people ended up with the hot chocolate all over the table and them - that was not so cute as it looked sore.

The kids were all given little individual Panettone's as well with the covers featuring different cartoon characters, as usual with kids there was the chorus of I want the one he has not this one, so there was some Panettone swapping done - not that the covers made them taste any different and at the end of the day the covers ended up in the bin anyway!

Blowing on the hot chocolate

With the hot chocolate and Panettone's

It was nice to see the kids enjoy their Chocoltada and experience my first one as well. 

To see more pictures of the kids enjoying their Chocoltada please click here