GEE WHIZ - IT'S CHRISTMAS!!

that from an oldies song that is played ALL THE TIME in the streets and on the busses here. (genevieve, i'll send you TEN guyanese dollars if you can tell me who sings it - you are the oldies queen!)

highlights include:

our makeshift angel - pictured here at right. we call it our "cookup angel", in reference to guyanese cuisine/society. see, cookup is a rice dish with random veggies mixed in. people use the term to refer to people (usually babies) who have mixed ancestry that includes afro, chinese, amerindian, east indian, and/or portuguese. they're a little bit of everything.

a christmas dance recital that included both preschool groups (ADORABLE!!) and professional adult companies (STRIKING!!). i loved their folk dances, the ones from guyana itself - especially one of a small womanizing man and his large-and-in-charge wife who wanted to DANCE that had everyone in the auditorium rolling on the floor!

going to the st. anne girls' orphanage for a joint christmas party for the girls from st. anne and the boys from st. john bosco (a mery-sponsored orphanage where eileen works part time, and where the boys i take swimming are from).

actually receiving christmas packages and cards and emails and everything on time!! you all are amazing! special thanks to mom and dad, both grandmas and grandpas, and the GR Kronbergs, who collectively equipped me with all i'll need for a cross-country trek, followed by a serious pampering session and creative journaling. the pine and balsam and fir from maine and michigan still smells fragrant - very well done! reminds me of home the way nothing else can.

caroling with the choir at a luncheon and at the hospital in mahaica for patients with hodgson's disease (leprosy) - and especially listening to one of the patients sing a version of "white christmas" in a deep baritone that made your soul fill up when you closed your eyes. he'd give many a balladeer a run for his money! (that's me with the tambourine - i'm the beat box of the group).

learning to cook indian food (vegetarian and meat) for a dinner with friends, and especially learning the many ways to clap roti.

baking TONS of cookies and hunting like crazy for chocolate chips (for the record, they don't really exist in this country, unless you know just where to look and when. they must be specially shipped in - who knew??)

decorating the house with lights and bows to convince ourselves that even though it's puring rain and 70+ degrees out, it really is christmas

having three wonderful lads from the orphanage (zion, moses and carl) join us at our house for christmas eve, christmas day, and the day after. it was a giant sleepover, with lots of movies (now that our dvd player is installed and working!), lots of toy police car sirens, a walk on the seawall and only one bedwetting! very successful, overall, both eileen and i say, despite the fact that i had the flu pretty bad, and was close to delerious on christmas eve day. once the medication got into my system and i got a little rest, we did just fine. we sang "feliz navidad" when we were thinking of our favorite christmas songs (that was zion's) and "jingle bells" was carl's, and i don't think moses ever did tell us his favorite. i don't think i could choose just one.

i don't know if this qualifies as a "mercy moment", but i will always remember reciting "the night before christmas" to the three of them as they dropped off to sleep next to each other on christmas eve, visions of sugarplums most certainly dancing in their heads. :o) what special memories.





best wishes and blessings to all of you this christmas - and a happy new year!