Relajo, Navidad y Año Nuevo (Chaos, Christmas and New Year)

Relajo is a hard term to translate directly to English. There is no word that captures its meanings, essence and use in Spanish. If I were to attempt a few words they would includemessy, chaotic, relaxing, craziness, disorder and without rules. It is a diverse word that is very fun to use... especially if you want to be a bit dramatic.

I want "relajo" to signify craziness and chaos in this context as I feel like that accurately describes the last 3 months of the year 2022. As usual the blog posting became a very low priority in the relajo but 2023 is already looking more promising with this very long blog update. Firstly, I would like to begin by wishing you all a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year! I pray 2023 will be a year filled of many blessings, good memories, and lots of love. 

With such a long period since I last wrote, I thought a brief summary of the amazing crazy things we have been up to as well as lots of photos would be a good way to show you all what has become normal life for me on this beautiful ranch. 

One of the highlights of the year at NPH is the quinceñeros. This a tradition in Latin American culture that is celebrated when a teenager turns 15 to represent them becoming an adult. One of the boys in my hogar (the group of kids I spend every night with) turned 15 earlier in the year (even though he looks like he is still 10 years). I was asked to be his 'madrina' or godmother, together with one of the other woman who looks after him. We dressed up all fancy and enjoyed a special mass, delicious dinner, and late night dancing. Because my godson does have multiple disabilities it wasn’t a simple evening (especially the taking photos aspect haha) but we all thoroughly enjoyed ourselves. 

In addition to the quinceñeros in November we had a continuous flow of events including Confirmations, First Holy Communions, and then graduation of the grade 9 and kindergarten students. Because we are a big family, all these celebrations are done as a community making them very special memories.

Also, in November we had a Department of Health team bonding trip to the beach. This meant the team of doctors, nurses, psychologists and therapists all came along. It included a 5-hour bus ride there and then a 5-hour ride back... in the same day... yes in the same day. When you go to the beach here in Honduras you can’t just arrive and walk onto the beach. The beach hereis lined by restaurants. Therefore, you have to select your restaurant to spend the day at and order food at some point of your time there. It was a lovely fun day that I really needed but travelling 10 hours in one day in a bus was exhausting.

Daily life remained busy and full of continuous learning in my work with the amazing team of therapists we now have. Here’s a picture of our new team and some work pictures. 

A daily highlight remains to be the time spent in hogar. My hogar, after almost a year, feels like coming to my family in the evenings. My hogar is the home to 7 boys, 15-23 years, all with multiple disabilities - mostly underdiagnosed. I'm always greeted by them in their special ways. A very big smile from a few of my kids, a yell of "Venga Chisty" from the one boy who can talk, a touch on my back from another and a hug from my now godson. Here are some pictures of them including the daily wait for dinner to arrive on the balcony, as well as one of my boys birthdays where we made a cake. 

The same boy who recently celebrated his birthday also managed to break his arm falling the other day. Though he was in so much pain and lost a lot of his independence during this time, he showed incredible resilience and remained cheerful and his usual self. It was incrediblw to witness. He loves blowing bubbles so he was very happy when it was finally better and he could spend all day blowing bubbles again. 

Soccer has also been something that has recently become a big part of my life. Someone decided to host a special game of soccer between the volunteers and the woman caregivers. Considering I have no foot coordination and basically have 0 experience playing soccer, I discovered I actually really like it. We managed to win the game (no thanks to my own goal though... since then I have stayed in the middle doing the running). We have since played 2 short tournaments and I am slowly getting better. Here’s to 2023 and improving my soccer skills. The world cup also captivated our attention for all of November. Watching the final from the comfort of our garden with the kids around us on a cell phone (while being patient about the internet not working and being 3 minutes behind continuously). It was an amazing game and a very special memory. We celebrated Argentina winning with carne asado or in South African terms... a braai. 

The lead up to Christmas was filled of many dinners and celebrations with the kids and the caregivers, some of whom now have become really good friends of mine. I really enjoyed spending quality time with a lot of the kids before Christmas as things at work calmed down slightly. We would do things like movie nights, baking and decorating cookies. I also spent three weeks helping out with the holiday program they ran for all the kids, including the higher functioning kids with disabilities. We did things like cooking pancakes, watching movies, making crafts and colouring. Things like decorating our hogar with Christmas lights and having the special Christmas dinners definitely made being so far from home less challenging. The caregivers built this incredible Christmas village for our Christmas eve celebrations. It included this castle of lights, tree of lights, a huge bonfire, and a tree house.

Christmas eve was a magical night of mass, good food, including traditional nacatamales, dancing, and sparklers in between all the rain and cold that we were experiencing. Everyone stayed up to 12am to see in Christmas and then the kids went to sleep. However, us volunteers who had spent all week wrapping Christmas presents, got to play Santa Claus and deliver all the gifts to the kids’ homes and put them under the Christmas trees, ready for the morning. We finally made it to bed at 3am. 

Christmas day was very low key. I joined some the younger kids who were delivering donations of food and clothes to one of the local communities and then we played football in the afternoon. In the evening we all came together and watched the Christmas story, which one of the caregivers had created with people on the Ranch. If you would like to watch the movie the link is here https://youtu.be/veFEs7O3SOI . It is fantastic! They did an incredible job recreating it without losing the beauty of the nativity story. 

The week between Christmas and New Year was filled with a lot of dance practice and finishing off things for the year in work. Its tradition for the volunteers to do a choreographed dance on old year’s eve celebration. So following tradition we put together a 20-minute dance including a variety of English and Latin dancing. It was so much fun and a good bonding experience. New Year’s Eve was almost exactly the same as Christmas eve with sparklers, a huge bonfire, and dancing. At midnight we watched them explode a scarecrow like figure to signify burning away the old year to start the new year. We also had a few fireworks and a new year donut to start the year sweetly. Traditionally they also eat a lot of apples and grapes at this time of the year. You are meant to eat 12 grapes at midnight for prosperity in every month of the year. 

2022 was an incredible year for me filled with so much growth, amazing memories and the privilege of living out my passion. I am so grateful for the incredible blessing of NPH, the work they do, the people and the children I get to serve, and family I am part of. While I thought Christmas time would be really tough being so far away, having another family here has meant that it was a very joyful, beautifully different Christmas season that I am so grateful to have experienced. God has truly been so faithful and present with me in this year. 

I am currently on holiday in Nicaragua for 2 weeks to reset and refocus before the new year. You are all in my prayers and especially as I explore and visit the many churches here. I pray He will be with you all in this new year, guiding you through all the ups and downs and directing your paths. Here’s to hoping that the start of 2023 will not be a complete relajo and we can slowly begin with purpose and direction. Would love to hear from you all!

God bless, 

Christine