Giving Out Some Clothes

December 20, 2007

Jiiiimeneyyyyy Chriistmasssss! ….to quote Blaze himself, yes Jerome you can smile now, you are the only one that got that. Actually Jerome, my host fam asked who you were today, we finished looking at the wedding pics and they wanted to see some pics of my family. A file came up of some senior year furman pics and they wanted to know who the guy was that was darker than them, HA!...I think one of the comments might have been wow, a black person! I got to explain that you are one of my best friends back in the states and then they were full of questions about everyone, it was a fun time. Although, I did realize how much weight I’d lost looking back at the pics, I miss the PAC haha. They loved the pics I had of that cowboy suit I wore to that Chi O function though.

They are cute. haha

Anyways, nothing too crazy been going on round here. Although I’ve given up on putting money back on my phone over and over. You people will just have to call me J It’s too much money and time and worry haha. So I have had money on my phone for a while, sorry.
A few days ago after a weekday Mass that I attended with the community in the town, it was a parish wide mass that they have every once in a while, Padre Tino called me up to the altar to introduce me to those who didn’t already know me. I know right, crazy. Made me go to the pulpit and speak a few words of what he called “castellano”…jerk. So that was interesting, he wants to get coffee sometime, which is good cause I got some fundraising questions for him for his broke up church building.

One of the brothers chillin in his pad.

Recognize this one Rick?

I made a sweet little potato “torta” they call it here the other day, it surprised the crud out of me, it was actually good. There is another one that I want to try too with potatoes. Food is good. Although, I eat a ton of sweets here, my teeth are going to fall out while I’m here, just gonna tell people that. Between the sweets and coffee and oranges, there is no stopping it.
Hmmm… oh yeah, today I was up at 5 to get on a bus to distribute clothes with the scholarship students of the high school. There is a family from the states that sent a ton of clothes with the Louisiana people, and they are supporting four students in the high school. They want the students to go our and distribute some clothes in each of the communities to families that need it. So, the committee put me in charge of that, go figure. So the kids and I set four dates, and the first one was today in the canton they call, Hacienda Vieja. It was quaint, perhaps more so than La Communidad, it just felt like there was more poverty there, but not sure. Anyways, we distributed the clothes to different families and I met the scholarshipped girl’s fam, which was just a grandma and a brother. Apparently her parents died when she was young. The families we gave to were apparently orphans and homeless etc, all kinds of stuff, so that was good to see and experience. They kept trying to thank me as God’s messenger and stuff, but I kept trying to get the point across that they weren’t from me, and that I wanted some of those clothes too, haha. They are all awesome people though.

The two scholarship girls and one of the fams we gave to.

A quick capture of the students giving out clothes to needy families.

This evening, they reminded me that the “santitas” were going to stay the night in my house if that was ok, of course it was cool with me. So I made one of Aaron’s Oreo nonbake pies, good choice Aaron, it worked out well, and had coffee waiting and the house clean when I heard the singing coming my way. Apparently every Christmas they have two little wooden statuettes of Mary and Joseph that they carry and come to a door, and act out the whole no room in the inn scene by song. However, they put the Christian twist to it, making it an edifying tradition to the faith, and I accept they petitions at the end to enter the house. Afterwards, they came in and the kids put them on the place I had prepared to stay the night, yet there is now Jesus. Because he hasn’t been born yet! The pics kind of foreshadow it though. Then they prayed a rosary on the mystery of the Incarnation, each kid taking turns, and then we had cake and coffee. Where they proceeded to wash all the cardboard plates I had left out and put them back soaked as if they were ready to use again, along with the Styrofoam cups, haha. I gotta get used to reusing those things here too, although, I don’t know if the cardboard is going to survive.

My host mom and the little statues coming in the house.

Rosary me.

The "santitas" hanging out around the light.

Tomorrow I am off the San Sal to get my package, develop some photos for the community, and pick up a few groceries if I still got some money.


I like this quote because it reminds us of the antiquity of the Sign of the Cross.

“Anyone can bless himself with the sign of the cross of Christ; anyone can answer ‘Amen’; anyone can sing Allelujah; anyone can be baptized, enter churches, build the walls of basilicas. But the only thing that distinguishes the children of God is charity. Those who practise charity are born of God; those who do not practise it are not born of God. It is indeed an important sign, an essential difference. No matter what you have, if you do not have this one thing, everything else is of no avail; and if you lack everything, and have nothing else but charity, then you have kept the law.” (St. Augustine, In Epist. Loan. Ad parth., 5, 7)