Christmas in Xela

In case you haven't picked up this information from our previous posts, or this is your first time visiting our blog, allow me to state the obvious - our new life here in Xela is very different from our old life in Iowa. Everything is different. Little things. Big things. Daily things. And, especially, holiday things.

This is our first Christmas in Guatemala, and we have really been struck by what a big change it's been! For example:

In Iowa we would sometimes have poinsettias on the table as a festive centerpiece. Here, poinsettia bushes grow in people's yards and can be up to 10 feet tall.

Yep - that's a poinsettia bush blooming behind my lovely daughters!

In Iowa it is usually very cold, and we would often have snow for Christmas. The kids could go outside and build a snowman. Here, we went to an outdoor Christmas party one evening. We did have a snowman, though. Granted, it was a pinata, but a snowman nonetheless. Apparently, in Xela, children destroy snowmen instead of building them.

(image found on pinterest)

In Iowa, almost every school-aged kid cuts out paper snowflakes at some point during December. At my school, I suggested to my students that they should make some for my room, but none of them had ever made them before! In fact, many of them had never seen actual snow before, either. We were all fascinated by the craft-inspired cultural exchange.
 

(image from crafthubs.com)

In Iowa, people enjoy going caroling (though usually inside, like in hospitals and retirement homes) to spread cheer and joy. Here, people have Posadas, where groups of friends gather and walk through the streets carrying lighted candles, blowing whistles and banging on drums, and knocking on doors to find room at the inn for Mary and Joseph. One similarity here, however, is that both caroling and posadas end with hot chocolate and cookies. Those things might be nearly universal!

In Iowa, one of our family's traditions for many, many years was to put together gift boxes for Samaritan's Purse's Operation Christmas Child. This year, we didn't. And, though we heard about local people doing distributions of these goody-filled shoe boxes from this GREAT organization, we had the opportunity to do something little more personal. Some friends of ours who help out at a shelter for abused women and children invited us to come along as they distributed gifts, gave out a delicious tamale supper, and shared a simple gospel message.  These activities had the same purpose, but different methods and locations.  I must admit, getting to hug teen moms, tease (and be teased by) kids, and hold babies was pretty awesome!

 In Iowa, we always had a two-to-four-hour drive (depending on where we lived and where we were going) to get to where we celebrated Christmas. In Xela, we will always have a two-to-four-hour drive (depending on road conditions, how many protests there are, and how often we get lost) to get to the Mexican border to get our passports stamped.

This is a section of the curvy, mountainous road on our trip.

In Iowa, we always loved it when Papa (my dad) made a roaring, crackling fire in the fireplace. In Xela we also have roaring and crackling, but here they're from fireworks. It's a tradition in Guatemala to set off fireworks at midnight on Christmas Eve.  (To be honest, they set off fireworks for a LOT of things!) I have literally never seen so many fireworks at once, and I'm a certified pyrotechnician in the States! It is a breathtaking spectacle to behold, and I'm excited to see the repeat performance on New Year's Eve. (I told you they really like fireworks.)

In Iowa, Christmas is a time to celebrate the birth of Jesus Christ. In Xela, it's... oh, yeah! It's the same thing! Though Christmas in the U.S. has too much focus on Santa and commercialization, and Christmas in Guatemala has too much focus on "Santa Maria" and religious traditions, the heart of this holiday is still about the fact that the creator of everything loved fallen, broken humanity enough to come and dwell with them on Earth.

(Image from pinterest)

No matter the language, the traditions, the climate, or the location - it's still the best story ever told, and cause for celebration! So, Merry Christmas from the Farriers of Faith in Xela, Guatemala. May you be truly blessed in the year to come!

 

Recap

Sheesh! Feels like it's been forever since we've posted. Sorry 'bout that. Life got really busy, really fast the last few weeks. I guess we haven't had time for much self-reflection, let alone writing! So, here's a brief recap of what we've been up to:

• Our semester is over at school. Wow. Half a year is under our belts. The girls have settled in to the school routine well, though it's still a big adjustment. Their grades on their final report cards were very good. But, even better, they are really feeling like they're starting to fit into the groove of things there. I, also, no longer feel like I'm scrambling to keep one day ahead, and have really gotten to know my students and their needs well. I was also able to sign my contract for next year. So, I'm officially going to continue to be the High School English teacher, and we'll officially be here for the 2015-2016 school year. 

• The Bible college where Mark works follows a Guatemalan school calendar, so they have been on break since the end of October, and will start back again right after New Year's Day. Even though there haven't been students, there has been a lot of work to do. They've been working on tiling the floors of the classrooms, painting, doing some work on the roof, and keeping up on general maintenance needs. Once school starts again, Mark is planning on trying his hand at teaching a course or two. It's a very exciting step, and I can't wait to see if he'll get bitten by the teaching bug!

• We had the privilege this past week of going with our friends to the women's shelter to help hand out gifts and provide a supper. There are about 35 people living there, more than half of whom are young children. It is hard to think about what they must have come from to end up there. We already help support the shelter financially each month, but are hoping to be able to do more in the future. It was hard to see so many people hurting, but good to know that they are safe (for now) and to get to be a part of bringing some Christmas joy.

• Spanish lessons are going well. Mark has been doing two hours per day, five days per week. I do one hour lessons, twice a week. We've been working on squeezing in some time for Rachel, as well. Our Spanish tutor is a wonderful Christian man, and we are grateful for both his excellent skill and the ability to bless his family financially by paying for his services. Over Christmas break we're planning on doing around 30 hours of lessons, mostly for me and the three girls. It's not exactly the way we'd planned on spending our time off, but we desire to do so much more here, and language has been a limiting factor. So, more lessons it is!

• One of the requirements of our travel status is that we leave the country every three months, whether we want to or not. So, I'm writing this blog from a hotel room in Tapachula, Mexico. In a way, we have a forced vacation (of sorts) every 90 days. Though we technically have other options, Tapachula is the closest, easiest, fastest, cheapest choice, so here we are. And, we'll be here again in March. This was our first 'solo' trip, and all went fairly well, aside from getting lost twice on the way. (Oops!) The border was very chaotic because of people heading to Mexico to do Christmas shopping, but we still managed to go the right places and get the right things done. At least our first trip alone is under our belts!

We know that there will be many more things that God will enable (and ask) us to do in the months ahead. For now, however, we're awfully grateful to have three weeks together to rest, relax, eat some good food, and just "be." Though we're missing our families and friends terribly right now (especially because of the holidays), we know that we know that we know that we're right where God wants us to be, and that He's big enough to keep hearts connected even across thousands of miles. 

Extremes

Life here is surreal. I have come to think of Guatemala as a land of extremes. It is home to the highest mountain peak in all of Central America, but also contains over 200 miles of sea-level coastline. There is a city with a metropolitan population of 2.5 million people, as well as hundreds of tiny, dusty, remote hamlets scattered throughout the rural countryside. We've got cutting-edge technology, and subsistence farmers who dry their hand-planted, hand-irrigated, hand-picked corn on the tin roofs of their houses. Remember - all of this is in a nation roughly the size of Tennessee.

These facts and figures about the landscape and the population, though, aren't the most surreal part. The most surreal part comes in our daily lives and interactions, where we keep finding ourselves face-to-face with the truly startling juxtapositions of Guatemala.

I'll give you some examples.

A few nights ago we had a friend over to our house for supper. As you'd expect, our conversation was varied and interesting. We discussed chili recipes, favorite books, places we'd visited in the U.S. And, then, without even a pause, we turned to other local matters - like how she'd seen the youngest shoe shine boy in the park (ten years old) getting arrested for sleeping in the park instead of going to "the dorms," which the government provides for these homeless kids. Despite his pleas to be left alone, and explanation that he can't go to the dorms or he'll get raped by the bigger boys, he was still taken to jail. Or, there was the 16 year old prostitute who delivered her baby on a park bench and then abandoned it at the hospital so she could go back to getting high on glue and making money selling her body. After all, she had to eat.

These things really happened.  Recently. A few blocks from my house. In the same park where wealthy tourists and the rich locals celebrate with too much booze and giant suppers every Friday night.

But, they're not isolated incidents, either. We see these types of things all the time.

The view of the mountains here is truly breathtaking, but so is the smell from the street dogs, trash, diesel smoke, and people urinating in the streets. 

Amidst the dazzling array and amount of food for sale in the market (everything from fresh shrimp and fish, to exotic fruits and veggies), there are also people who are literally starving.

We've never yet gone to grab a bite to eat at a fast-food place without having our meal interrupted by a street kid trying to sell us gum or candy for 1Q in order to get enough money to buy some tortillas to fill their bellies. The irony of seeing food go to waste right in front of hungry kids is painful. (We always buy the candy, by the way.)

One of the hardest juxtapositions is when we see fancy cars or big, expensive trucks narrowly miss the homeless (often drunk) people who pass out/sleep on the sidewalks and end up with an arm or leg in the street. Unfortunately, the swerve often comes too late, and there are frequent fatalities and serious injuries around town from such situations.

One extreme we were pleasantly surprised to find was just how nice almost everyone here has been. Yes, we've had some unpleasant experiences with people harassing us a bit, and one or two vendors in the market who refused to wait on us. But, mostly what we experience is a level of warmth, openness, and love that we were unaccustomed to in the states. People here greet everyone with a kiss on the cheek. (This takes some getting used to. Trust me!) They genuinely are excited to talk with you, and ALWAYS take the time to really connect with those around them. We have felt so very, very welcomed here!

On the other hand, there are the deep spiritual challenges. The superstitions, the mix of religious practices, and the fervent and  faithful processions - many times carried out by people who believe that is the way to salvation, and unaware that Jesus is the ONLY name by which man may be saved (Acts 4:12), and then by grace and not by works (Eph. 2:8).

The latter is even harder to be surrounded by than hungry kids or desperately poor adults. And, it is what we primarily came here for. Physical poverty and starvation are nothing compared to spiritual poverty and starvation, after all. Though, with the help of God and all of our faithful supporters, we are endeavoring to be an answer for as many of these problems in as many people's lives as we can.

When it comes down to it, Guatemala really is a nation of extremes. Some of them are discouraging. Some are astonishing. Some are downright heart breaking. But, there's nothing so extreme as the unending, unparalleled, limitless love of God, and His ability to change lives and eternities through Christ. That's the extreme I'm going to embrace to the fullest, because I know it's the only one that really matters. It's the only one that lasts.