Feliz Navidad!

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“And you ask me what I want this year

And I try to make this kind and clear

Just a chance that maybe we’ll find better days

Cause I don’t want boxes wrapped in strings

And desire and love and empty things

Just a chance that maybe we’ll find better days”

-Goo Goo Dolls, “Better Days”

For the first time in my life, preparations for Christmas did not begin with Thanksgiving, stressing about decorating or baking cookies, studying for finals without sleep, running around trying to buy presents for friends and families and worrying about the ridiculous and unnecessary amount of money that is spent on Christmas each year.

Rather, I prepared for Christmas through daily Mass with the Center’s families, prayer and reflection with my community, lesson planning, working, filling hundreds of bags of clothing for our families one Saturday, giving the hundreds of bags of clothing to the families the next Saturday, lesson planning, spending time with the families, going to the many fiestas the week before Christmas, more lesson planning and teaching…in fact, I worked right up to the 23rd, and I went right back to lesson planning and grading on the 26th. (Starting to lesson plan again on the 26th was my choice, but it just goes to show that these kids are my priority here and it is completely worth it to me to get some work done during my vacation.)

For the first time in my life, I feel like I experienced Advent and Christmas for how they should be. I have never gone to so many fiestas in my life in such a short period of time, from fiestas in each of my English classes to fiestas with the staff and workers at the Center to fiestas with the pre-kindergarten and kindergarten classes to fiestas at each Center with all of the families. What I loved the most about these fiestas was that the emphasis of each one was simply being together and enjoying the time that we have had and continue to have together. Christmas is indeed a time for celebrating - but not celebrating by opening presents on Christmas morning. Rather, it is a time to celebrate LIFE and the HOPE in that Jesus was born into this world as a baby to save us.

(One note about all of the baby Jesus’ I have seen here - at the Center and everywhere else: they are all WHITE, with blonde hair and blue eyes. All the baby dolls are white, all religious works of art are white…And the people don’t see anything wrong with it, and they in fact prefer their Jesus baby dolls to be white. However, I see SO much wrong with it…If the majority of the people are Moreno, I think Jesus should be Moreno too. How else are you going to relate to Him? How did this happen so many years ago?? Why does white skin have to signify an authority, as something ‘better?’)

I cannot express how refreshing it has been to get out of the materialistic and consumeristic culture of the US, especially during this Advent/Christmas season. I watched a video on YouTube about Advent, and has some very unsettling statistics. Both reading the article about the WalMart worker who was trampled to death and watching this video physically made me SICK to my stomach. This kind of stuff frustrated me before, but now, after being here for four months with these children, these families, who are living in such extreme poverty, this kind of stuff hits me so much harder and so much closer to my heart. The only reason these kids are not begging on the streets and starving is because the Center provides them with 3 meals a day, and more importantly, the opportunity to have free education and to improve their lives.

If you haven't seen them...
• YouTube video:
• WalMart Article:

Yes, I bought my kids presents, and also, yes the Center gives the kids presents. And yes, even the volunteers were given a present. BUT it’s one thing per person. There’s no extravagance here in gift-giving, and there is so much gratitude when Christmas is celebrated like that with the people here. And for me personally, It was SO refreshing to take the time to write people real cards rather than run and around and try and buy them something. It made Christmas so much more meaningful for me.

I also cannot express the joy on these kids’ faces when they receive presents - real, new presents from the Center. After the pre-kinder and kindergarten productions, each child received a new present wrapped with beautiful wrapping paper. You could tell that some kids had NEVER in their lives received a present like this. One of the two year olds I know was walking around, perfectly content to simply hold his present. I finally told him that he could open it, and he stared at me blankly. I started to rip off some of the paper to reveal part of the box of his new toy, and his face lit up and he tore off the rest of the paper. I cannot tell you how big of a smile he had, how much joy was on his face. His family of 7 is new to the Center this year, and this could very well be the only new thing he has ever gotten in his life. The looks I saw on his face and on many other children’s faces and their shrieks of joy are indescribable.

And it’s impossible for the majority of the US to see or understand this look because it’s impossible to even make this face if you receive 20 presents every Christmas and every birthday. It’s just impossible.



I spent Christmas Eve and Christmas day going to 4 Masses within 24 hours. We first celebrated with the gringos downtown in English, singing the traditional Christmas carols and everything, and then we headed over to an indigenous town right outside of Quito for their midnight Mass. It was the complete opposite of gringo Mass because this Mass was standing room only (while gringo Mass was pretty much empty in a small chapel), and there was so much life, energy, and spirit put into the Mass. After the Mass, we all came back to eat a feast one of the Madre’s had prepared for us, and then we watched a slideshow of pictures from the year so far she had made for us as well.

Christmas Day, we went to a Mass at each of the two Centers. I loved being able to celebrate with all of our 500 families, and it was so touching to watch all of the second graders receive their First Communion and be so proud and excited to have received Jesus for the first time. It brought tears to my eyes at each Mass. Then we came back to the house and had a big dinner/celebration with probably over 50 people, from the volunteers to people who were born in the US but now live in Ecuador to Ecuadorian families who literally grew up at the Center. We ate dinner and then there was a presentation of gag gifts to all the volunteers and adults from all the families (I won a trophy for the Lesson Planner of the Year Award as well as a petition from my primer curso girls that I come back next year to do study hour with them), and then there was one present for everyone. And again, I can’t describe to you the looks on these kids faces when they opened up newly wrapped toys. Incredible…



However, like everything here, the Advent/Christmas season has been a little bittersweet. Although it was so precious to see the pure joy on kids’ faces as they were opening their one present for the year, it was also heartbreaking. Knowing the kind of houses these kids go back to every day, spending Christmas Eve night (and every night), shivering together, high up in the mountains. Knowing the kind of abusive families that these kids belong to, and how unsafe a lot of them feel in their own homes. Knowing that one of my girls’ father is in jail and she did not get to see him on Christmas. Seeing one of my student’s sobbing after Christmas Mass because her little brother didn’t come and she doesn’t know where he is because they are all alone - their mother is in the hospital with a newborn baby and the father is dead. Seeing the guys who guard the gates of the Center and everyone at the Metro and in all the little stores working on Christmas Eve and Christmas Day. In a lot ways, Christmas was a day like any others here in Ecuador. This is not a ‘magical’ day here when most people get a day off and can stop worrying about things for 24 hours or for a couple weeks of vacation, like in the US. Life keeps going on here, and we celebrate in spite of that, knowing that, embracing the good with the bad.



Overall, hands down - best Christmas of my life. Padre Juan said in his homily at the gringo Mass on Christmas Eve that all Jesus wants from us is gratitude. I am nothing but grateful to have been here to celebrate Christmas with all of the kids and their families, and I am truly nothing but grateful to be here this year.


Que Dios les bendiga a todos ustedes…

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