Feliz Navidad!

The last thing I should be doing on Christmas day is sitting in the internet cafe, but I thought I´d take a quick second to wish you all a very Merry Christmas! My Christmas has been filled with lots of church (7 masses in 4 days, to be exact).

Although we are all a little "massed" out, the services have been really special...on Saturday we handed out the bags of clothes that we compiled for each family after a mass in both Centers...Yesterday we went to a gringo mass (first time I´ve been to mass in english in 4 months - very strange), then immediately to a very traditional Ecua-mass out in one of the barrios - it was interesting to so closely observe the differences between the two services. The gringo mass was the typical sort of Christmas Eve mass that I have been going to in the U.S. for the past 23 years - beautiful chapel, nice carols, nativity story, pretty but tasteful decorations, everyone dressed to the nines in their new christmas outfits, etc. The Ecua-mass, on the other hand, was absolutely crazy! I wasn´t all that surprised since I´ve learned by now that Ecuadorians know how to celebrate holidays better than anyone else in the world. We walked in (the last ones to arrive, but a benefit of travelling with the priest - mass can´t start until you get there so you´re never actually late!) to extremely loud, exuberant singing and clapping. The church was decorated with tons of flowers, colorful banners, a live nativity scene, candles, and little baby Jesus´dressed up in gold, lace, and sequins by every family. The place was packed! And by place, I mean shed, more or less. Most people stood the entire time because there weren´t enough seats. It literally felt like a party in there. I could go on and on, but I have a feeling that no matter how hard I try to describe every detail, words just won´t do it justice! The final two masses today included the First Communion of our second graders. Three of my students are second graders so it was fun to see them all dressed up and so excited to take communion for the first time - I felt like a proud mama!

Although it´s been wonderful to spend Christmas in Ecuador this year, with these people who have become such an important and special part of my life, it does definitely feel different. First of all, the weather (which I won´t even describe for you because if you´ve been reading, you know what it´s like, and, well, I feel like I shouldn´t rub it in anymore!)...but mostly, it´s strange to not be with family and friends in Minnesota. I miss you all so much and you are in my thoughts and prayers. I hope you all are having a wonderful Christmas!

Love,
Keely

I ended up staying here last weekend and enjoying 4 days of doing NOTHING...and that included blogging. oops. I have been busy, as usual, though preparing for the end of my first trimester!

Speaking of which, I cannot believe Christmas is one week away! The lack of snow and presence of warm weather in December has made it difficult to get into the Christmas spirit...but the last week has been full of Christmas decorating, cookie making (mom, you´d be proud), and singing carols by the fireplace, so it´s starting to feel a little more like Christmas time in Ecuador! We are teaching our english classes a few holiday songs and it might be the funniest thing I´ve ever heard..."way weeeeesh you a merrrrrrrrrrry chreeeeeeestmas!" They love it though, and we do too (mostly because it means less actual class planning to do...haha).

Six of us are taking salsa dancing lessons on saturday afternoons. It is so fun, and hilariously awkward at the same time. White girls (and boys) were just not made to move their hips! We´ve already learned a lot though in 2 lessons...so much so, that we thought we were good enough (after a few margaritas) to show off our moves at an actual club after our lesson on saturday night. haha. The best part was that our instructor ended up coming to the same club and probably felt like it was his duty to dance with us. That´s when I realized I wasn´t as good as I thought.

Well, I´m out. Thinking about you all a lot lately, and wishing we could be together for Christmas...

Much Love,
Keely

It´s December 4th...

and I´m wearing flip flops (my current most "favorite thing about life in Quito").

I have also recently come to appreciate the lack of organization, timeliness, preparation, and prompt communication in this city, and particularly, at the Centro del Muchacho Trabajador. Tomorrow is the Center´s 43rd birthday, and this week is Fiestas de Quito, so we´ve known since September 1st that we would not have school Wednesday (birthday party) and Thursday (national holiday for the founding of Quito). Naturally, we all thought it was slightly ridiculous that we have 2 days of school, 2 days off, then 1 day of school, then 2 days off, and were hoping that they would just cancel classes on Friday as well. Rumors have been circluating for the past week...school/no school/school/no school/school/nobody really knows what´s going on at all ever. Last night it was "confirmed" that we would indeed "for sure" be having classes on Friday. A mere 12 hours later, they announce that, oops, actually, we´ve come to our senses, and there won´t be classes on Friday! Woo hoo! Now, you can imagine the skepticism that came with this announcement (especially because it was relayed to us via the 2 most sarcastic, joke-sters in the house), but it has been CONFIRMED by the Madre herself - I have a 4 day weekend!!! (Tomorrow doesn´t really count since we´ll be up at 6am to cook breakfast for all 2,000 members, then organizing and helping (and eating, dancing, and playing) until 10 tomorrow night). Now the question is...what to do with all this free time? Hang out with the kids? Take a trip to the beach? Sleep? Stay home and get some work done? Go climb a mountain somewhere? The options are virtually endless - It´s like Christmas 3 weeks early! Seriously, you should see us, walking around like we just won the lottery or something (or as Stuart much more bluntly put it, "we all have those shitty I-just-got-laid grins on our faces" - sorry if that´s not blog-appropriate).

Anyway, it´s looking like I will have PLENTLY of time to fill you in on the details of the birthday party, fiestas, and free time in the coming days :). Until then, I hope you are all having shitty grin kind of days as well, and please go outside and make a snow angel for me! (As much as I love my flip flops, I do miss the snow a tiny bit).

Love Love Love Love Love,
Keely