Fiesta de la Luz

Missing: Giuliano and the Quinteros clan

The Fiesta de la Luz is like our Fall Festival. A safe alternative for kids in place of Halloween. The irony was that the neighborhood had picked the very same day and the exact hours of our planned fiesta, to cut off all electricity (cut off the light, if you will).

I could see the look of disappointment in the eyes of those who had worked so hard to plan each part of the event. Andrea, in charge of the games, trying to find a solution for how to accommodate for so many children. Eva, who had directed the play, thinking of alternatives for the various features of the play that needed lighting and microphones. Coco, who had baked so many cakes, thinking that no one would come to enjoy them.

I reminded them of what had happened before, during the Día del Niño, when we arrived to our designated location only to find the political parties throwing their own shindig without having asked the neighborhood council's permission like we had. In the moment, we switched plazas, and ended up having even more kids than planned. "God knew what He was doing then, we can assume He knows what He's doing this time too," I told them.

And sure enough, the hour in which the planned light's out time passed. I guess someone must have forgotten!

Mily and I were paired up to lead a game. Within this, was another milagrito, as I call it (translates to little miracle), but that wasn't understood by me until the moment had already passed. Back up. Not only was I in charge of a game, but I had to make the tree for the play as well. Reality strikes yet again at the fact that I would have to make this tree out of scraps/trash as we were working on a budget and that budget was nil. So I collected all the cardboard boxes and green pieces of tissue paper I could find, forked out a mere 2USD for some high quality tape, and had Javi make a scrap-wood stand on which our lovely tree would rest:

Huzzah

...and something you could easily throw away when done.

But all this to say that I also lost time preparing for the game. The game was simple: two kids would need "crowns" and the rest of the kids would need "jewels" to throw into the crowns. The crowns were easy because I would just make some poster board jewel-less drawings of the coronas and then tape them to some ice cream containers that are large enough for the kids' heads. The jewels was the issue. And as is part of my personality that I don't necessarily deem as procrastinating, simply, thinking too long upon the subject/forgetting, I never got around to buying or finding something suitable.

After all, these pelotitas would need to be jewel-esque and small, but not to hard that someone could get hurt.. cheap if I were to buy them.. and actually available. The last one is the most difficult part. The night before, I was still joya-less. My friend asked what I was to do, and I didn't know. Shrugging, I just said I'd figure it out in the morning.

"But it starts at 3pm! What if you don't find them?" she asked. (A valid point when everything closes by 12 or 13 hundred hours.)

"I'll just have to figure something out I suppose."

To be perfectly frank, I wasn't worried about it. If I couldn't find anything in the morning, I would have to be flexible and maybe change up the game or something. Not like we haven't done plenty of that already.

During the night I had a dream where I was talking with my mentor Andrea. It was a conversation we had already had a week before, and she was telling me about a woman who gave her husband an entire bag full of necklaces. My dream then fast-forwarded to the part where my very hand was holding this bag and putting it up with the costume jewelry that we have in the back, but not realizing what was inside.

I woke up remembering that I could probably just take those necklaces, cut them apart, and use those as "jewels." When I went to the back, it was actually a bag of assorted beads of the very jewel-esque quality I was aiming for, that were to be used to make necklaces. I came back into the house where my friend was sitting and asked me what had happened. She was in awe of how simple it all was.

The most important part of the day however, was when two strange cars parked by the plaza. OUR BOYS FROM THE INSTITUTE GOT TO COME!!! Sergio, Gabriel, Matias, Rodrigo and Nico all came piling out and I got to give them a big hug to welcome them! They played very well with the rest of the kids, and I was extra surprised by Matias' behavior--much better than normal.

Any way, another great event in which all of the church had come together to serve. Perhaps another of the highLIGHTS of the day. Chau!