Día de Acción de Gracias!

Happy Thanksgiving!

I actually forgot that it was Thanksgiving until around noon (not that I am not thankful...) My theory (regular theory, not a conspiracy theory) is that the consistency of the weather (75-85 degrees, sunny- tough life, I know) here warps our perception of the passage of time. Bring on the rainy season?

In a country where this holiday is obviously not celebrated, we have a couple festivities on our plate. Today at Nuevo Mundo our decimo class performed mini skits about the first Thanksgiving. They initially thought Squanto was a Pilgrim from Holland so we had some clarifying to do and they pulled through and did a great job (though I assured them only a couple people aside from the English teachers would understand them anyways). Tomorrow night my boss, Pat, has invited us all over for a big Thanksgiving dinner so we dont`t seem to be missing out on anything!

Last weekend I had my first Junta, a meeting in which the teachers talk about each student in each grade. It was immensely helpful to hear how my students were performing and behaving (or not) in other classes. Saturday afternoon I trekked out to an area called 28 de agosto with Cynthia. 28 is where Manos Abiertas, one of our 3 after school programs, is located and it is noticeably poorer and more rural than many parts of Duran. We met up with Tierney and Jessie and talked to Padre Liam (the number of Irish priests living in Ecuador..) about setting up a clothing fair of our donations.

Sunday morning we participated in what turned out to be a highly amusing Cristo Rey procession (I don`t think amusement was the intent, but isn`t it better that way?) We met up at the designated launch point at 8:30. At 9:15 our priest rolls up in a car and begins driving at the head of the procession, with a large framed picture of Jesus balanced precariously on his windshield. We followed our fearless leader to the church as he pulled over from time to time to have conversations with passers-by. A woman at the front started yelling loudly about the evils of abortion, at which point some little old lady carrying yet another portrait of Jesus became tired and handed it off to me. We made quite the entrance parading into church, me at the front holding Jesus. Holding my lauhter= Christmas miracle.

Sunday night we went to see Harry Potter (in English, and I won`t say more because you know I could talk about Harry Potter forever) and then to the airport to pick up our first retreat group! 5 high schoolers from Cape Cod; this group is chiquitito but it`t been great fun to see what has become, in a small sense, our world, through their fresh eyes. 1 almost down, 13 to go (including a group from BC in January)!

Father Jim is in town so we are having taco night at Arbolito after the school bus brings me home! Happy Thanksgiving!