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| I love the two girls hand in hand patiently waiting a turn on this human powered carousel |
Navilandia is a Christmas camp that started on Dec 8th and lasted until Dec 24th. Each day sponsored and non sponsored kids from all around yapacani participated in this summer Christmas vacation camp. Since there were over 1000 sponsored and non sponsored children who participated in the camp, it was held at several locations in yapacani. The central site was here at Maria Auxiliadora church hosting about 500 kids. This where I helped. The days started with dancing to chrishtmas songs, a short talk/prayer from either Father Arturo, Sister Geraldina, or one of the other sub-directors. Afterwards kids broke up into smaller groups of about 100-200 kids for activities with their group leaders. I was asked to lead a smaller group of about 20 adolescent boys.
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| These are the boys that were in my group. The elderly woman to the left was not in my group. |
I asked myself how would Don Bosco use this time with the boys if he was here? Keeping Saint John Bosco in my mind helped me in making decisions through out Navilandia. In our group we learned about the different ways God can speak to us each day. Through the Bible, people, nature, in our hearts, dreams (as was the case in Don Bosco's life), through media,... When I told the boys that God can speak to us through movies,they were like "Que?" Yes its not impossible for God to do that. You like action movies, I like action movies and God knows this. So He will meet us there and teach us for our own betterment/sanctity. We watched / discussed the new movies "Maleficent" and "Hercules" in the Don Bosco movie theater. I do not watch a movie seeking to find a message from God, surprisingly His messages just appear in the plot...Other days we learned about Mary's role in the life of Christ and in our lives. We learned how to appreciate the gift that God gave us over 2000 years ago, His incarnate love Jesus. We also learned how God gave us the lives of the saints to teach us how to love and serve Him. Some of these lessons were augmented with making crafts that could help these young boys develop the necessary virtues to be faithful sons of God. It was nice to see how helpful they were to one another during the projects.
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| Some fruits of the Holy Spirit in this picture: "Charity", "Kindness", and (for the little boy whose eyes are on that mango) "Self Control" |
On Dec 24th, thanks to generous donors in Canada, the kids in our camp received Christmas presents. Many kids in Yapacani did not receive presents because their families can not afford gifts. As we were cleaning up after the long day, Sister Geraldina said to me " you know it really is something how a few items of food and a toy can make the kids so excited and happy." You really do not need a lot to be happy. I have received this lesson over and over again and it continues to work in me. It helps me to let go of things I am so attached too. Not just physical and material things, but interior imperfections/attachments about myself. I was glad to see the teenage boys not afraid to give me a hug at the end of camp. I didn't even ask for hugs, they just started giving me hugs and asked if I was going to be there next year. I like to think that something was satisfied and planted deep in their hearts during our time together.
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| Girls with their barbie dolls. Thank you to the generous sponsors in Canada. |
Christmas Eve and Christmas day schedule:
Dec 24th 8:00am-2:30pm preparing with all the helpers at Maria Auxilliadora for 2:30pm
Dec 24th 2:30pm-5:00pm Giving presents out to hundreds of kids (a chocolate chip muffin, stale cheese doodles, a bag of cookies, a juice bag and one toy= one very happy child)
Dec 24th 7:15-7:30pm(1st dinner) frozen pizza with connor and one of the aspirants at Chicken Hong Kong
Dec 24th 7:30pm-9:00pm (Christmas music and dances to attract people to church)
Dec 24th 9:00pm-11:00pm Christmas eve mass
Dec 25th 12:00am-2:00am tradition for the town to shoot fireworks at midnight all around the city. This was followed by a late night dinner (our 2nd dinner) with the family of a secretary from the parish.
Dec 25th 2:00am-7:00am sleep
Dec 25th 7:00am-11:00am visiting a family to wish them a merry Christmas
Dec 25th 11:00am-12:30pm Christmas day mass at Maria Auxiliadora
Dec 25th 12:30pm-2:00pm lunch at the elderly home
Dec 25th 2:00pm-5:00pm took a nice nap (felt like one of santa's elves from all the activities this past month)
Dec 25th 6pm-8pm prayer, dinner, community time with the priests and aspirants in san carlos.
Dec 25th 8pm-930pm Went to Santa Fe with the aspirants to wait and catch a bus for an aspirant who was going back to Beni (36 hour one way trip for my friend)
Dec 25th 10pm I really did have a wonderful Christmas day. At the end of Christmas day ,there was a gift left for me, not under a Christmas tree, but next to my bedroom door. It was an unwrapped, brand new toilet bowl cleaner! I wasn't expecting to receive anything for Christmas! It made me laugh.
