Feliz Navidad

Hello, happy December, and Merry Christmas! I've certainly fallen behind on my blog posts, and I apologize for that. The first few weeks of December were busy, yet not particularly eventful, so it didn't seem incredibly pressing to post an update (as in, today in kindergarten we talked about the number 8). However, with almost a month gone by since I last wrote, I thought you might like to know what I've been up to. So, in no particular order:

• Celebrated a very nice Thanksgiving, YAGM style. After I was glooming and dooming about not being able to spend Thanksgiving with my family, our whole volunteer group got together at our country coordinator's house for a good, old fashioned Thanksgiving meal. I made cranberries; it was the first time I've contributed something to the holiday besides my appetite. It was wonderful to enjoy delicious food, each other's company, and talk about some of our favorite Thanksgiving memories.

• Began celebrating Christmas, Mexican style. I was worried that I wouldn't have much of a Christmas this year, but the truth is, Christmas is everywhere! Stores, restaurants, and homes alike are all decked out in lights and decorations. Even my host family, who is usually pretty bare bones when it comes to decorations, really got into the decorating. We have a nice little Christmas tree, a Nativity scene, lights, and Angeles even decorated the gas can like a reindeer. They also celebrated the Day of the Virgin; the Virgin of Guadalupe is a very important religious and cultural figure here in Mexico. Her image is everywhere, and her name is often invoked to help, guide, and protect the people of Mexico. Thus, she gets her own day in December, where there were masses especially for her, parades, songs, and the like. Our volunteer group also celebrated together this past weekend; we baked Christmas cookies, had a white elephant gift exchange, and watched "A Christmas Story" and a "Charlie Brown Christmas" (classics, for sure).

• Went to the ballet for the first time! The Moscow State Ballet company is touring and performing "The Nutcracker," and they came to Cuernavaca. The movie always scared me a little, but the ballet was wonderful. I love the music; I listen to the soundtrack every year while baking Christmas cookies with my mom, so it was a special treat to be able to see the actual show.

• Witnessed Mexico on Ice, i.e. Cuernavaca setting up an outdoor ice-skating rink in the middle of the zocalo (the downtown plaza). It's an idea copied from Mexico City, which apparently did the same thing last year. Keep in mind that, even though it's December, daytime temperatures in Cuernavaca can easily reach into the 70 or even 80 degree range. The zocalo is not particularly shady. It's a remarkable feat to actually have a cooling system strong enough to keep a sizable ice rink going in such a climate, as well as a pretty remarkable waste of government money. Still, people seems to enjoy it, and it's pretty funny to watch people try to skate, or rather pull themselves along the outside railings to keep themselves from falling (not being a good skater, I strongly identify).

• Put on a Christmas pageant at the kindergarten. Each year, much like in the US, the kindergarten does a Nativity play for the parents, along with some song and dance numbers from each individual class. They decided that it would be a very good idea for the kids to sing a song for their parents in English! So, in less than two weeks, I had to teach the classes a song to perform as the last number in the pageant. I chose "We Wish You a Merry Christmas," though I didn't even attempt to teach them anything beyond the refrain (we just swayed back and forth during the verses). It actually turned out very well; the kids really enjoy singing, and they picked it up a lot faster than I thought they would. The whole pageant in itself was very cute; kind of chaotic, but cute, the nativity play in particular. There was a Mary, Joseph, three wise men, angels, kids dressed as sheep (especially cute) and even a group of boys dressed as devils (I don't exactly know why they included devils in the birth of the baby Jesus, but it was funny, and not totally inappropriate costumes for the boys).

• Saw some pretty grim drug violence go down in our beautiful Cuernavaca. I'm sure almost everyone reading this had heard some reference to the incident on the news, since it broke on all the major US news networks. But if you haven't, here's a brief synopsis: one of the most powerful and malicious drug cartel leaders in Mexico, Beltran Leyva, was killed in a luxury apartment complex during a shootout between his cartel and the Mexican Navy. Apparently the state police and army are so corrupt that they had to call in the more qualified Navy to take care of a drug conflict. During the middle of the afternoon a week ago, helicopters, tanks, and ground forces moved in on the apartment building and began firing on Leyva and his men. Several narco-traffickers were killed, including Leyva, and one sailor was killed as well. It was an ugly scene, but solely between the military and the drug cartels, not civilians. Cuernavaca is not a drug contested city, and who knows why the cartel was here in the first place. Unfortunately, the war on drugs that incredibly incompetent President Felipe Calderon has been waging is tearing Mexico apart. He and news sources claim Leyva's assassination as a victory, but who knows how the drug cartels will respond to their power being challenged. Again, violence is not directed at civilians; I'm in no real danger, and the YAGM program keeps us well protected. But it still hits too close to home.

• On a much lighter note, I went on vacation! My friend and fellow volunteer Sara has family friends that live in Toluca, another mid-sized city a couple hours from Cuernavaca. They invited us to spend the Christmas holidays with them, and they're taking us around to some tourist sites as well. Today they took us to the Monarch Butterfly Reserve in Michoacan, a neighboring state. Millions of butterflies migrate annually from Canada and the Great Lakes region to this part of Mexico. They rest here for the winter, mate in the spring, and then migrate back in warmer weather. Simply put, it was magical; the air was filled with butterflies, and some of the trees were so thick with them they looked like they had orange leaves. They landed on our clothes, our shoes, our hair; it was really special. Pictures to come soon. The family we're staying with is so wonderful, and I'm so grateful for their hospitality. We'll spend the next couple days with them, and then over the weekend head off on another mini-vacation to the beach! How I look forward to relaxing on the sand.

I think that's all in a nutshell. I'm sorry I let so much time elapse between updates, so I can't get much past a simple synopsis of my activities. I'll try to do better (New Year's resolution!) I hope you all have a wonderfully Merry Christmas; know that I'm thinking of and missing all my family and friends, and that your support and kind words are so appreciated. It means a lot to know that people take an interest in what I'm doing here and take the time to follow my blog. Here's hoping and praying for a peaceful Christmas season, in Mexico, the US, and all the world. Feliz Navidad!