Christmas in the Dominican Republic - Micah

This is a little summary Micah wrote about Christmas here...

Christmas in the Domincan Republic

In the Dominican Republic Christmas is celebrated in a different way. The three dates I write about are the important dates celebrated here.

The first is Nochebuena or Christmas Eve. In the morning people go and buy candies, fruits (pears, grapes), and different types of food to cook. The day is spent cooking up a big feast. That night they eat. They also make a bonfire and drink ginger tea. This is what they do on the 24th of December.

The second date is Navidad or Christmas. It is celebrated in family time. They shoot off lots of fireworks and enjoy the leftovers from Christmas Eve.

The last date is Dia de Reyes or Kings' Day, the 6th of January. It is celebrated by gift giving like the three magi when visiting Jesus.

These are all teh dates I have to tell you about.

Love,

Micah

Navidad - Christmas

Christmas this year was an amazing blessing of family and friends! The phone rang in the fall..."Te invito a mi cena de Navidad, pero en tu casa..." (I invite you to my Christmas dinner, but in your house!) Music to my ears! Damaris and Victor Herrera have been friends since our arrival here in August of 2002. Victor is the president of our Kids Alive Dominican board of directors, La Junta. He is the HR guy for a large chocolate company here, Cortes. (Our board is comprised of an architect, businessmen, a doctor, pastors... ) They have three beautiful girls, Patricia, Lisa Marie and Gaby, who have given the gift of friendship to our kids, which has grown over the years. Everyone was excited about the Christmas plans... they arrived Saturday from Santo Domingo, with all the goods to make the Christmas dinner on Christmas Eve!
Main street Jarabacoa, in front of our church on Christmas Eve... We had a fun service that morning. Our pastor's wife (also fellow Kids Alive missionaries), Fefa, made Christmas dresses for Micah and Chase.
Micah with Cindy, one of the 5 children who live with Bill and Fefa Hansen. (Bill is the pastor, mentioned above!) Christmas Eve - the gange at our house after church! Complete with Jesse, the dog! Nana and Papa with the grandkids...

A wild time of bike riding took place outside... including the grown up children!!! While inside we had a wild time preparing a Dominican Noche Buena dinner... Damaris led the way while my mom and I tried to help - I am not sure that we helped make much food, but we did add to the laughter!Posing for the camera, pretending we were actually working!Vic did a fun devo for us on our front porch before we sat down to dinner... reminding us of the greatest gift of all... Jesus.

Then, we FEASTED!!! It felt like the Whoville feast...complete, not with roast beast, but numerous chickens and pork, salads of multiple varieties, baked potatoes, moro (a rice dish), Dominican specialites, apples, grapes and raisins... LOTS and LOTS of food! This is actually meant to last for days... and it did!
And in true Dominican fashion... fireworks that night...
And finally a bonfire... with those good ol' s'mores again! The gift that keeps on giving!!!
Christmas Day was leisurely and fun. The kids put on an 'Acto de Navidad' and gave us a very entertaining drama of the Christmas story... Luke 2.
Caesar Augustus, lounging, sends out his decree that a census is to be taken... Luke 2:1
Mary and Joseph and donkey head to Bethlehem to register Luke 2:4... and Jesus is born in a stable. Luke 2:7
The angel appears to the shepherds announcing the birth of the baby! "Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace to men on whom his favor rests." Luke 2:8-14
The shepherds worship the baby Jesus, and then leave to share the good news... Luke 2:15-20
The wise men arrive from the east with their camels guided by the star, and ask Herod where this baby might be... Matthew 2:1-11 The wise man leaves mounted on his camel... warned in a dream not to return to Herod after finding Jesus. Matthew 2:12
We said good bye to the Herreras, only after eating a tasty lunch of leftovers!... a great three days together - quite the slumber party... We went for a walk and quietly exchanged some gifts.
I will post Micah's note on Dominican Christmas celebration tradition... but gifts are exchanged on King's Day here... so Christmas is all about relationship (and food!!!) - it was really special for all of us! My parents, with no Spanish, really enjoyed the Herreras as well.

That night we gave thanks to God for the lives he has given us.

December - Week 3

The third week of December was full of great events as well, not to mention it was supposed to be a full week of home school (oh well)! CEV let out for Christmas. (I do hope to improve on the formatting!!!)
It started with a Sunday evening trip to Santo Domingo to renew the kids' passports - a process that starts early Monday morning. It was interesting being in the U.S. government offices here, speaking Spanish! All was completed, with a few of the usual hitches (no, you need more photocopies of that... those pictures are too small...) by noon! By evening we were home again in Jarabacoa.
Of note... as we were walking down the hall to our hotel room, the kids became fascintated with the carpet. All the floors are tile here. Micah whispered to me, "Can I take my shoes off to feel it with my feet?" Not the average question for a 9 year old American! Several months ago, I was talking with Jonathan Coleman, our sponsorship (and a lot of other things!) guy for Kids Alive, and as we spoke about the U.S., Luke entered the room. He began to decribe this soft stuff that was on the floors of all the houses in the U.S., and you can't peel it up - it is stuck to the ground, and it is really squishy... He had no idea that stuff is called a 'carpet!' He is 7!
Tuesday was our annual Christmas dinner celebration with the ANIJA staff... it is a great time of fellowship and laughter. Vic had been director of this campus for our first four years (a job that was to last a few months upon our arrival!), and recently handed the leadership over to Sonia Moreno. So, it was fun to be there to enjoy while Sonia and Miriam (director of the school - Centro Educativa Vida) ran the show! Everyone got a gift bag with a variety of gifts... among which were sunglasses that Dr. Haag had brought down in the summer... as you can see in the photos, these became the hit of the party Wednesday, Nana and Papa, aka Lynne and Jim Collins, arrived from Moraga, California - near San Francisco, where I grew up... A huge blessing in spite of distance - we have been able to spend Christmas together each year since our arrival in the DR. Usually we are here, but last year were in the States.Nana and Papa came bearing gifts of great flavor from afar - Christmas cookies from Penny Nagle (YUM!) and home made caramels from Sandy Busboom! Luke and Papa sharing a little reading in Famous Men of Rome!Thursday, December 21 - Winter Solctice, was Chase's 6th birthday! Time flies! We had a great celebration with Oliver Dougan, whose birthday is December 22, at his house. We had a fogata (bonfire!) and a typical American hot dog and chips dinner! Afterwards we feasted on cake and s'mores - thanks Peggy Roach! For most people, this was this was their first experience with s'mores! I hope to get up to date in the next few days... and then just share about life here... I do hope that the pictures say more than the words. I am often asked to describe a typical day... I realize no one has a typical day in December... but these are pretty typical for us in that there is lots of flow through our house, lots of interaction with lots of people and the fun of doing life in a different culture!

Dec End of Week 2 - Yenny's Wedding

Friday night we attended a beautiful wedding here... but the prep started Friday morning after school (it was early dismissal after Christmas parties!) Chase was asked by Yenny (one of the teachers at ANIJA) to be one of her girls... she actually had the opening roll of cutting the ribbons strung across the aisle...

Chase and I went to the salon to get her hair done! A first for the Trautwein family... but truly a common Dominican experience! Milagros Dougan was our guide as her daughter Alina was also in the wedding. Chase learned that this idea of beauty can be painful... the hairdryer was a little hot... but... all ended well!

Milagros puts on the final touches...

Chase carried out her roll perfectly... walking down the aisle first in front of some 300 people, cutting the ribbons as she went. There was no electricity... so a car was driven up to use the headlights, in addition to a few candles! It was a great ceremony and wonderful celebration. We were honored to get to attend and be a part! This is a neat family of very humble earnings, but truly great in spirit.

Chase and Yenny's sister Angie, Chase's assistant teacher last year.

Stanley and Chase right before it started!
Cutting the ribbons...

Angie, leading the way... Headlights lighting the way...