A Christmas to Remember

A real life short story about the true spirit of Christmas

As many of you know, I love Christmas, from the cookies, to the mass, to the presents, I love all of it. It came as no surprise then when several members of my family who knew I had just moved to the city with the teenagers emailed my asking how they could help out with Christmas. So I asked Nolvia, Nelly, Marina, Carlos, and Arturo to make a list; I made no promises, I just said I would pass it along. Neither I nor they had any idea of what was to come.

Christmas Eve and Christmas Day

After a wonderful nine days of Posadas (see blog Advent: A Season of Hope and Joy in Waiting) and all of Ceiba decorated to the nines for Christmas, the spirit was upon us, and we were ready for the big day to arrive. We started Christmas Eve with breakfast at Dunkin Donuts, a yummy treat courtesy of Scott Satterlee, a friend of the finca whose family helps us out here in Ceiba. We then returned to the apartments to receive phone calls from a couple former finca vols wishing us well. The girls then headed to Burger King with the laptop to put up fun Christmas statuses on their facebooks, while Nils and I began the cooking and baking of a traditional Honduran Christmas dinner which was paid for by a local jewelry. The girls then came back and along with the boys helped us finish up dinner. After getting all dressed up, and myself enjoying a phone call to my aunt’s Christmas party and other family, we headed over to the boys’ side of the apartment for dinner with the Satterlees. We enjoyed tamales, chicken sandwiches, fruit salad, grapes, Christmas cookies, and soda. All ate till they were full.

We then headed to a beautiful Christmas concert in the cathedral before midnight mass. They had a soloist from Nolvia’s hometown and sang the most beautiful rendition of O Holy Night. We then all stayed for a truly beautiful midnight mass. You could almost feel that the true spirit of Christmas was not just being talked about, but was truly all around us. After mass we headed back to the apartments for more grapes, sandwiches, desserts, and sparkling cider. We watched fireworks from our porch and called the farm to wish everyone a merry Christmas.

The girls were itching to open a present before they went to bed, so I let them have their stockings. In true Battle family household traditional each contained an orange, socks, and a new toothbrush among other things. The girls then went to bed, and round one of Santa’s elves went to work. Nils and I both stayed up late finishing wrapping presents and making everything perfect for the morning. At the farm, our kids normally get presents twice a year, on their birthday and on Christmas. This usually consists of a new outfit of donated clothing and an age appropriate toy or game. In the spirit of our very blessed Christmas, one of the current volunteers parents actually sent us some money so we could buy something extra for the teens this Christmas, this combined with gifts from Nils and I made Christmas morning truly beautiful. Nils and I even made cinnamon rolls (Me) and a special Norwigan egg dish (Nils) for breakfast. The kids were all super happy to get their gifts, especially Marina with her Real Espana jersey and Carlos with his new clock with river sound effects. We spent the rest of afternoon just relaxing around the house.

That night we headed over to the Satterlee house for a traditional American dinner of pork and roasted garlic mashed potatoes. This was simply delicious and very kind of their family. After discovering that the movie theatre was already sold out, we headed back to the house to watch part 2 of the Harry Potter 7 movie, which half the kids hadn’t seen yet. They all enjoyed, and headed off to sleep. Little did they know what would arrive the next day.

Christmas Day 2

The next day was a pretty calm day around the house, Sor Keidy, Amanda, and Betsy arrived from the farm, but that was about it. Then at 6:30, Christmas part 2 arrived in the form of my amazing sisters. Both of my sisters, Megan and Ann, arrived for their week long vacation with me here in Honduras. Between the two of them, my mom, my aunt Meg, my cousin Meredith, former finca vol Jennie Maria, and my sisters’ boyfriend Matt, they also had put together some presents for the kids. They essentially took the lists that I emailed my family, got everything and more, wrapped it in beautiful paper, and sent it all down in two giant suitcases. Not even I knew the extent of what was to come.

The kids eyes glowed as they saw the piles forming of presents with their name on them. When they had written their lists I don’t think they had even dreamed of getting everything on them, yet in front of them sat piles of presents for each one. They asked me if they could start opening and I said of course.

Words cannot express the joy that proceeded to exude from their faces as they opened their presents. They not only got new clothes, they got new clothes just for them from Hollister, and American Eagle, and Aeropostale. The girls got new jeans, dresses, multiple t shirts, sweaters, and nail polish, all perfectly fitting their style. The boys got multiple t shirts, sweaters, hats, and shorts also fitting their styles. Then Ann pulled out calendars, I think Marina skipped a few heart beats when she saw the Twilight calendar in her hands, whereas the boys just smiled at their super cool dragon calendars while they rapidly opened their new games as well. Then Megan pulled out another box, Jennie Maria not only sent books she sent 8 new books in Spanish, including the Hunger Game series, the concluding novels of the Eragon series Carlos has been searching for, and two books by Marina’s favorite author John Grisham. Marina and Carlos literally jumped out of their seats to see them closer.

One would think that my sisters were all done, but the magic continued. They brought Nils a glow in the dark mini basketball hoop for his door, and Sor Keidy two liturgical music CDs. Then in a moment of true surprise Megan handed me a brand new kindle for me from her, my aunt Meg and uncle Murray. I was literally in shock, I am an avid reader and could not imagine something better. With a kindle I could download books in Spanish for the girls, get books for Nils and I, even get updated Economist and New York Times to read periodically. She even loaded it up before she left with a bunch of books she thought I might like. My sisters then proceeded to pull out my stocking I have had since childhood full of stuff from my parents, really cool new clothes from Ann, a beautiful necklace from my Aunt Ellen and Uncle B, a box of my favorite type of chocolate petit fors from my mom, and snorkeling gear from Matt all for me. I couldn’t believe my own eyes, nor did I know where to look.

As soon as I looked up I found Carlos exiting and entering his room to model all his new clothes for us. I found Arturo neatly reviewing every gift with a smile worth a thousand words. I found Marina finding it literally hard to decide rather to focus on her new clothes, the twilight calendar, or start reading the new books right away. I found Nelly with all her clothes piled on top of her lap giggling with joy. I saw Nolvia laughing and smiling in near unbelief. These kids had almost never received anything new in their lives, and if so it was probably just for a school uniform. But here they had a pile of new cool things bought just for them in America. Their pure joy touched my heart in a way I cannot explain.

Then the true spirit of Christmas provided one more little miracle. They next day was Carlos’ little brother Cesar’s birthday, and my sisters and I were headed to the finca. As they were collecting the trash of wrapping paper, Carlos was grabbing his favorite kind. He was reusing it to wrap up one pair of his new shorts to send to his brother as a birthday present. When I asked him if he wanted to keep them, he said no, they are for Cesar, and to please take the first two books of the Eragon series as well, he had already read them, but was sure Cesar would love them as well. Later on my sister brought out a bag of toys they got at target, and each of the kids with siblings on the farm picked something out for each sibling. The next day every gift was received with a giant smile.

O Holy Night

That night Megan asked me if I was having trouble sleeping as I was simply sitting in my bed. She was across from me in another bed, and Ann in the top bonk of my own bed. I told her I was fine, the truth was I was in such great disbelief of the beauty and grace of the night. I don’t think all the people who worked as elves on this project realized in the process what amazing work they were doing. Not only did my sisters fly down to Honduras to see me during Christmas, they worked with my entire family and Jennie Maria to put together a Christmas that Marina, Nelly, Nolvia, Carlos, Arturo, Sor Keidy, Nils, and I will never forget. They bought me the most amazing personalized gifts I could not have even imagined on my own. They split up wish lists, and made them realities for kids who almost don’t believe in wish lists they have been let down so often in life. With the exception of my mom who visited last year, and Jennie Maria, a former vol, my family put together gifts for kids they have never met in their lives, simply because they care that much about the real spirit of Christmas, a spirit of true giving in gratitude for the great love that is present on this holy night.

That night I slept wonderfully; and despite my lingering cough, I could not keep from smiling as I eventually fell asleep. As I thought back to thanksgiving just four weeks earlier I remembered listening to Faith Hill’s rendition of “O Holy Night” as Deirdre and I fell asleep. All I could think was that this too was truly a holy night. After welcoming in the Christmas season at a beautiful midnight mass the night before, and witnessing the amazing blessing and Christmas miracle that was my family’s presents for the kids and myself, all I could do was smile in awe at my two sisters and at life and its abundant blessings; especially the blessings of Ann, Megan, Mom, Dad, Meg, Meredith, Matt, and Jennie, to who I am forever grateful to for your kindness and generosity to myself and all the teens here in Ceiba.

Advent: A Season of Hope and Joy in Waiting

Advent is the four weeks that lead up to Christmas. It is meant to serve as a time of waiting and preparation for the great joys of Christmas. Sadly, it is often forgotten or simply interchanged for more Christmas time. Advent for me is what makes the joy of Christmas that much better, because it came not when I wanted, but after a period of waiting in anticipation.

I entered this advent very unbalanced. I was not finding routine or much free time in my new job as caretaker of the teenage girls in Ceiba. I was continuing to struggle with a nasty cough. I was feeling generally imbalanced about life. Advent changed that.

We began advent with a beautiful mass in the cathedral where the priests actually blessed every family’s wreath on the altar and lit each first purple candle. Padre Francisco then said a beautiful homily about the great beauty and graces available in this season, and how we should all take advantage of them. So we did.

A traditional advent wreath has four candles, so here are four points of light from our Advent here in Ceiba:
1. Weekly Prayer: When our wreath was blessed at mass, they gave us a small prayer book with weekly prayers for Advent. While our teens usually find it hard to agree on anything, they all agreed without contestation that we would do the weekly prayers with our blessed wreath at community night each Monday night until Christmas. Every week for four weeks we started our Monday night together in these joy and hope filled prayers, each person taking their turn to lead without any complaints. The peace these simple prayers brought us was truly beautiful.
2. Dalila’s big move and Christmas decorations: Dalila graduated high school this past November, and has been planning her big move to independent life over the past year, and this advent her fateful day finally arrived. She was all set with her job, new place to live, university scholarship, all she had to do was sign a contract with the farm and pack her clothes up. When she finally set a day, December 11, I asked her what she wanted to do before she moved out. So we cooked all her favorite meals, had a pj party, everything. One thing she specifically requested was that we decorated the house for Christmas before she moved. She wanted to make sure the house was ready for Christmas. So on Tuesday night we listened to Christmas music and decorated till our hearts were content. That following Sunday Dalila took a taxi to her new home, only four blocks away. She then decorated her new home the following day; making sure that it was ready for Christmas as well. We greatly miss her, but also see her often and truly appreciate her example for all our teens. In the spirit of Advent she then showed up on Christmas Eve to leave some presents under our tree, where she found some waiting for her as well!
3. Posadas: Typically the third candle is the pink one meaning the joyful week, because the great feast of Christmas is now so close. Posadas were our pink candle this year. Posadas are when two people dress up as Mary and Joseph and go house to house asking for a place to stay. You sing Christmas carols in between houses, and then the third house usually offers you posada or a place to stay. There you hear about the theme of the night, something related to Christmas, and then share a snack. This year the youth group had their own posadas. It was so fun to see almost all our kids dress up and to walk around Ceiba singing songs. The last night Nils and I proved what we believe to be the the tallest Mary and Joseph combo Ceiba had seen in quite some time as Nils is 6’4” and I m almost 5’8”. The true spirit of Christmas was all around us for all 9 nights leading up to Christmas eve, along with fun songs, yummy snacks, and our kids getting an extra chance to hang out with their friends on Christmas eve.
4. Excitement in the preparation: As many of you know I simply love Christmas. To a certain extent, for me the shear process of getting ready for those 12 days of Christmas brought me out of my personal imbalance and into a more joyous state.

Advent brought me joy in the form of Christmas music, gingerbread houses, tree decorating, and posadas. It brought me hope that while I waited for this great feast, I could start the process of regaining my balance in life, and hope that with all the joy of Christmas I could once again find the means to staying on the path to a more balanced me.

Por Alla (insert lip pointing motion here)!

For anyone who has ever lived in a foreign country, you know very well that cultural differences are not only inevitable, they also can prove highly comical. Despite the frustration they cause, if you take them with a grain of salt, you find that they are truly hillarious. Moving to the city of la Ceiba from rural Honduras has proven no exception to this phenomenon.

As I faced my first few weeks in Ceiba, I in a very USA manner asked people for directions to new places, and expected answers that involved lefts and rights and the number of blocks I would travel. Why I expected such clear answers, I have no idea, apparently I wasn’t paying good attention during my first year here in Honduras. Whenever I ask anyone in La Ceiba for directions that either respond by pointing in the general direction with their lips (culturally here they point with lips not fingers, you get used to it), or when lucky they say “por alla…donde (insert random/ ambiguous place I don’t know)” which translates to “over there by the (insert random/ ambiguous place I don’t know),” not very helpful to a new person in town.

One night in the apartment Sor Keidy began to describe a location I had to go to the next day in the same way. I informed her that with all respect, I have no clue what por alla means. She then told me it was by the street light, suppressing my laughter I informed her that I knew of many streetlights here in La Ceiba. She then began to use an actual building name I know, but pronouncing its English title with Spanish vowels. She became so frustrated that she too gave into laughter. Eventually we figured out what the other was referring to. The girls now love to make jokes about this, and never fail to use “por alla” in every direction they give me.

Another fun cultural difference is walking speeds. Hondurans walk very slowly, or maybe Americans walk fast, either way they are two very different speeds. My girls always are nervous about being late to any social event, so they always pressure me to leave on time. Comically, even when they run late, they still refuse to walk even slightly faster to make up time. I have come to enjoy my strolls with them, once again finding the humor and joy that exists in cultural differences and teenage attitudes.

A Salute to the Oldies

This is just a short note to honor Erin, Alisha, Sheena, Kristina, Francesca, Nely, Georleny, and Scarleth for their 27 months of service to the finca. They all departed this past early December after finishing up their time at the farm, and are greatly missed by all. Their selfless service, great love, and unforgettable personalities were true gifts to all connected with the farm, and will be remembered always. They remain in our prayers in this time of transition in their lives.

New Address!

So many of you have asked if my address has changed since I moved to Ceiba...it has, but no worries, if you send me mail at the farm in Trujillo I still get it! Essentially whenever we have a visitor from the farm I get free forwarding service..very fancy, I know! If you want to send mail directly to me in La Ceiba, where I now live, please send it to:

Mary Kate Battle
Apartado Postal #708
La Ceiba, Atlantida
Honduras, Central America
CP 31101

Also if you have a new address, or have moved in the the past year when I updated my address book, please feel free to email me your new info at marykate.battle@gmail.com, I love sending as well as receiving cards!

Best,
Mary Kate

November: A Time of Graduations, Transitions, and New Beginnings

November proved a slightly crazy, but also retrospectively grace filled month at the finca. We began the month with the graduations of five of our kids, David and Danny from sixth grade and Nolvia, Nelly, and Carlos from ninth grade from our elementary and middle schools on the farm. All glowed with pride for our amazing kids, we even had several former vols fly in from the states to be there with them on their special day. The following week the finca said good luck to myself, Nils, Carlos, Nelly, and Nolvia, as we all moved to the big city of La Ceiba where Fase II (teens in high school) of the finca calls home. This was not easy for anyone, but in the end excitement seemed to win out and all seem at least excited to see what would come with our big move. The day after we moved in Dalila graduated from high school, and the next day received a full scholarship to a university right in downtown La Ceiba. Only 11 days had passed so far in the month! The next third of the month was calmer in terms of events, but slightly crazier in the sense that Nils and I were attempting to learn the ins and outs of our jobs, while simultaneously getting to know the city and attempting to care for teenagers on our own. Luckily we had a ton a visitors from the farm pass through on business trips, which made us feel very supported.

At the end of the month, we had survived; all the teens were alive, and working or volunteering in the city. Nils and I knew more or less what was expected of us, and were also more or less meeting those goals. By providence two vols, our old Guatemalan housemate and good friend Deirdre my fellow ND peace studies major David got stranded with us in Ceiba on thanksgiving, and were therefore around to help us pull off one of the most beautiful thanksgivings I have experienced. We had all the essentials: turkey, stuffing, mashed potatoes, cranberry sauce, we even had pumpkin pie. We invited kids who had graduated from the farm, the Satterlee family that helps us out here in Ceiba, Sor Keidy even invited a friend. We then opened the dinner by saying a prayer where all had to say one thing they were grateful for, the result was one of the most beautiful prayers I have ever heard. We then enjoyed food until we could not eat any more.

In true teenage fashion we saw the premier of the Twilight movie the next day at 7 PM with Betsy (fellow vol), her visiting family, Deirdre and Amanda (fellow vols), Nils, myself, all the teenage girls (Dalila, Marina, Nolvia, and Nelly), Carlos (Arturo was tired), and Sor Keidy. All 13 of us waited in line and filled an entire row to see the epic film. All were thoroughly satisfied, and rested well that night. I personally viewed it as a mini personal celebration of making it through the grace filled, but crazy month of November!

Ten things from Month Number Ten: October!

October was an amazingly awesome and busy month; here is a list of the ten biggest things that happened:

1. The newbie missionary volunteers arrived! Welcome Kevin (fellow fan of DC as a grad of Georgetown), David (fellow ND peace studies major, shalom!), Allison (super sweet smile and loves to dance), Ashley (now we have two nurses, and this one has east coast ties!), Sara (native of the beautiful states of Tennessee), Erin Marina (fellow Lyons Hall/ ND friend…woohoo!), Erin Lucia (Maryland native…go Mid-Atlantic!), and Haydee (yeah for Nicaraguan psychiatrists)
2. We went on a beautiful retreat up in the mountains of Buena Vista to welcome our newbie vols which was followed by a beautiful mass on the farm and great communal dinner with typical Honduran foods.
3. I covered house 2 one Sunday night with Sara and in two hours we wrote cards, danced to High School Musical, ate gummi bears, and put all the girls to bed!
4. I had the honor of attending the most epic bachelorette party ever for the one and only Colleen Minta at Harry Potter World with Adrianna Chuh, Anna Seghetti, Meghan Thornton, and Kacy Deering.
5. I got to see my mom for an afternoon and hang out while I was in Florida for Colleen and Patrick’s wedding.
6. I attended the beautiful wedding and awesome reception of Patrick and Colleen MacCarthaigh.
7. God blessed the rain in Hondras so that we got stuck at the finca and had to reschedule a Ceiba visit, and were able to celebrate Amanda’s birthday with her in person.
8. I finished my classes at the school, and in a bittersweet day my last students told me gracias and walked back to their general classrooms.
9. I visited Ceiba with the teens and Nils and got oriented about my new job.
10. Nils and I planned a Halloween community night for the vol house complete with a costume contest and jack-o-lantern carving.

An amazing month I will never forget!