xmas retreat and posada

December 16-19 we had a very relaxing Christmas retreat with the other YAVs. We went back to Casa San Jose, a guest house at a Catholic seminary in Xela, because they have a good space to meet and a kitchen where we could make a US-style Christmas dinner. We talked about the books we had read for this retreat… Rich Christians in an Age of Hunger and Reading the Bible Through Third World Eyes, cooked, baked, ate lots of what we cooked and baked, decorated a little Christmas tree Marcia brought, had a small gift exchange, and even sang Christmas carold a capella. The only bad part about it was that my body is no longer used to buttery, creamy casseroles and other US Christmas-y foods, so the day after our Christmas dinner was a little rough. But it was really nice to be around the other YAVs… everyone is a little more settled in since the last retreat and we told stories and laughed and complained about minor things while making s’mores in the fireplace.

The evening that I got back from the retreat I went with my family to a posada at the house of one of Betty’s cousins, named Elica. (Elica is the mother of the bride of the wedding I went to in October). For about a week or so before Christmas the Catholic churches here have Posadas each night where they carry a Mary and Joseph to a different person’s house each night, carrying candles. When they get to the house there is a conversation by singing between the people inside the house and the people outside the house who have just arrived. The people outside ask if they can come in and the people inside say there isn’t any room in the inn and this goes on three or four times til finally everyone comes in, there’s a mass, and then some kind of food afterward (for us it was hot chocolate and sweet bread).

We didn’t sing any Christmas hymns, even though it was December 19, but I really enjoyed the priest’s sermon. He preached from a very obvious liberation theology position, and he also talked about current world events, which was refreshingly political after spending most of my church time in the very non-political evangelical churches. After the mass was over we all went to look at the very European-looking Mary and Joseph dressed in typical Guatemalan indigenous clothing and took pictures with them.

Elica’s husband also has two grown kids in Los Angeles and they were making a video to send to them and I got to say hello and Merry Christmas to some Guatemalans living in the States, which was kinda neat 