"Today is a Holy Day of Obligation in the United States, a day on which we celebrate the Immaculate Conception of the Virgin Mary (the Immaculate Conception has been, since 1846, the Patroness of the United States). Note that it is she, Mary herself, who is the Immaculate Conception; the day does not refer to Mary's conceiving Jesus by the Holy Ghost, but to the conception of Mary in the womb of her mother, St. Anne, by Mary's father, St. Joachim. What makes her conception immaculate is not that she was conceived by the Holy Ghost of a virgin, as was Christ Our Lord, but that from the very moment of her conception, she was filled with grace by God, Who knew, in His omniscience, that she would say "yes" to the Angel Gabriel and become the Mother of the Savior. Exactly nine months from now, on September 8, we will celebrate Mary's birthday (I always knew someone like Mary had to be born in the month of September ;) )"
My day started with mass at the Cathedral. There were three masses offered and I chose to go at 9a.m. When I arrived and saw the entire church filled with people I realized that the 6:00a.m. mass wasn't over yet. That prepared me for the long mass I was going to sit through. It was beautiful though and the songs were jammin'! During communion some ladies and little girls in traditional Honduran dresses danced up the aisle:
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| Qué Linda |
It was a FULL house:
And no mass in Honduras would be complete without a stray dog wandering in:
After mass I went shopping in town with Anne and came across this funny store:
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| Just a wild guess...but I bet they don't accept dollar bills! |
Then it was time for a nap before round two. I headed back into town around 6:30 to participate in all of the nighttime festivities. On the walk there I ran into lots of my students. I love seeing them out and about!
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| Marcela and Me |
When I got into town I saw they had put a Christmas tree up in the center. It was so festive :)! Although it's hard to imagine it's the Christmas season when it's still 80 degrees outside!
There were lots of vendors out selling different types of food, candy, and knick-knacks of all sorts! After checking all of that stuff out we walked around town to see all of the different alters set up to honor Mary:
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| Our religion teacher's (Olban) alter to Mary |
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| One of Jeff's students posing with baby Jesus |
We ran into some of the teachers from Santa Clara:
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| Kandice (my new roommate), Carrie, Lacey, Ella (Kinder teacher), me, Anne, Angela, and Jeff's student |
Spotted a crazy painted truck:
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| WE WANT DEMOCRACY! |
Then saw someone running through the streets with firecrackers strapped to a box on their head. MUY LOCO!!!!
Finally around 8:00 or so they brought the Blessed Mother out of the Cathedral...
Complete with a short fireworks show...
The people process through the streets with Mary while saying a rosary. After the rosary is finished the people run through the streets going from altar to altar - screaming some phrase that ryhmes and getting food (mainly fruit and candy) thrown at them. We stayed for part of the procession but it was getting really late so we walked home before the people started running through the streets. I was bummed that we missed it, but since we had to come to school today I needed that sleep!
Today is December 9th and it's also 9 days until I'm home!!!! I can't believe how fast the days are flying by!
TGIF tomorrow!!!!!
"If you think you're carrying something heavy, just imagine that the next person is carrying something twice as heavy next to you." I went for a run once and I passed a mother (a little bit older then me) carrying a wailing baby, holding the hand of another child (who had Down's syndrome) and walking next to another one of her kids. They were leaving town (most likely after a hard day of work) and walking home. I remember the mother's face, exhausted and worn, and she still managed to pass me with a gracious "que le vaya bien." At that moment "my load" didn't seem quite as heavy." -Mary Monley
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