The Whirlwind of December

Merry Christmas!

Happy New Year!

Happy Kings Day!

These past holidays had a definite Venezualan/Canarian/American flavor. 

Many people in the church, including the Dyes, are from Venezuela. And you can't celebrate Christmas in Venezuela without "hallacas", which are made of cornmeal dough, like tamales. The filling is made of braised meat (beef, pork, and chicken) with raisins, capers, and olives. You make it into a little packet tied up in banana leaves and then boil them in a huge pot for an hour or so. Priscila and Mama Emma cooked everything over a couple days and then the ladies from church came over to assemble over 150 of them one day. As the ladies arrived they set up an assembly line. The Venezuelan ladies guided the rest of us as to how to cut, scoop, press, fold, tie, etc. I got assigned the end of the line where I was the only one cutting string. hehehe It was a fun and productive time! The best part was when we enjoyed a late lunch of hallacas all together. It was necessary quality control.

Once cooked, we froze the hallacas to save for Christmas. We ate hallacas after church on Christmas Eve, and at the Dye home for New Year's Eve, and again a day before Kings Day.

To take advantage of the season and visitors coming to church the leadership team of the church planned for us to have snacks after church on December 17th, a meal (hallacas and salads) after church on the 24th, and we had cupcakes to celebrate the church anniversary on the 31st. It was like a progressive dinner over 3 weeks.

The kids' Sunday school class prepared The Tale of the Three Trees. We had planned to have them perform it on Christmas Eve, but they learned their parts so well and the set designer was able to build the props in time for the visitor-oriented service on the 17th. Everyone was encouraged to invite someone to church that day and hang out for the snack time afterwards. The kids did such a great job that they put on an encore performance on the 24th, as planned, because some grandparents would be visiting for Christmas.

Another thing the ladies in the church enjoy doing together is celebrating birthdays. A time and place are set according to the birthday girls' preference and schedule and those who can meet up with gifts. We celebrated Viviana at a lovely tea shop (yes, they have coffee, too, and it's actually cheaper than the tea) for a whole afternoon and into the evening. Viviana and her husband Alex (you may remember him from the airport runs to get my luggage), along with their two teenage sons, are from Colombia. Viviana and Alex decorated the church for Thanksgiving and Christmas and made the props for the kid's play. Steve is discipling Alex in a leadership role at church. They are kind of new to the church, but not new Christians. We are so grateful for their eagerness and creativity to serve in the church. May they continue to grow and mature in Christ. 

A week before Christmas, I had the opportunity to share with a group of IberoAmerican churches in Chile, Ecuador, Peru, and Paraguay. It's part of an initiative of our founder Jeff Phillips to form a group of regular church people and engage them with IAM missionaries around the globe, praying for them and connecting the missionaries with interns from Latin America, i.e. IberoAmerica (the American countries colonized by Spain and Portugal, which is the Iberian Peninsula in Europe). The meeting started at 7 pm local time in Santiago, Chile, which meant several people  connected as they commuted home from work on the public transportation. It was 6 pm in Ecuador, when most people sit down to "merendar" their evening meal. In Tenerife, it was midnight and everyone else in the house was asleep. So, I set up my computer out on the terrace and rearranged clothes drying on the clothesline so there weren't shadows from the exterior light on my face. I realized as I was preparing my slideshow that it was my first time to share about the work in Tenerife in Spanish. My biggest delight was to see the pastors and their wives in Ecuador.

One of the ways God provided for me this season was to be able to house-sit for a German woman at church for a couple of weeks. Alexandra went to spend the holidays with her cousin, who is her closest living relative, leaving her plants and her cat, Noah, at my mercy. It was nice to have some extra space and try out apartment living on my own. In the end, I was under the weather for a few days and I was able to lay around in my new Christmas pj's without being underfoot. I also discovered I may be a bit more allergic to cats than I had previously let myself believe. I'd never had an allergic reaction before, but Noah is a very affectionate cat that likes to cuddle as close to your face as you will let him. I'm also thankful for Benadryl.

The Dye family had 13 stockings hanging wherever they could manage in the living/dining area. There's Steve and Priscila, Jeremiah (13) and Natalie (just turned 11 on the 21st). Angela and Michael are the older kids going to college, Johnson University and Anderson University (respectively). Mama Emma is their honorary grandma. Hadrami is honorary child number 5. I'm the honorary aunt. Michael brought along his girlfriend Kylie from college. Priscila's sister Teté and her husband Juancho arrived a couple of days before New Year's. Angela's boyfriend, Mark, arrived just after church on Sunday, December 31st. Did you count them all? Everyone had a place at the table.

On Christmas Eve we had a Venezuelan Christmas dinner. Going clockwise from the top: hallaca drizzled with some garlic aioli (that's Priscila's special touch), "pan de jamón" or ham bread which is bread dough rolled with ham, bacon, olives and raisins (sounds weird, but it totally works), roast pork loin, "ensalada de pollo" is a simple potato salad with shredded chicken, it's like a marriage of potato salad and chicken salad. It was amazing! Here's another picture of the "pan de jamón".

Christmas day we had an American meal of turkey, green bean casserole, sweet creamed corn, mashed potatoes and gravy, chicken noodles, and sweet potato casserole. Oops, I didn't get a picture in time.

For the residents of the Canary Islands, having shrimp and other sea food for New Year's is like having turkey for Thanksgiving in the USA. We had Canadians (I forgot to mention Teté and Juancho live in Toronto) make our New Year's Eve feast. Clockwise from 3 o'clock: tender, cut-with-a-butter-knife grilled steak covered with mushrooms and onions, shrimp scampi, sausages, and...

garlic sauteed octopus over baked sweet potatoes.

Thinking of all that food reminds me that I haven't had lunch yet, so I'll wrap up quick with some silly things I've seen.

Silly things

Be careful if you come to Tenerife and you need to fuel your vehicle. For one thing, the regular unleaded gasoline is labeled green and the diesel is labeled black. Also, the price advertised is per liter not per gallon. So, right now the unleaded is priced at 1.25€ per liter. You need about 4 to make a gallon, so the gallon price is 5€. The exchange rate today is 1€=$1.10, which makes the Tenerife price per gallon $5.50, and suddenly your local gas prices don't seem so bad, huh?

You have no need to hesitate coming to Tenerife because we have Ben and Jerry's! Though you should know that hand-dipped gelato is cheaper... and fresher.

If you're more into savory foods rather than ice cream, there's McDonalds! Just kidding, that is not a McD's burger. They have gourmet burgers here, too. This one has local smoked goat cheese, a dried goat cheese and pimento spread called "almogrote", and "mojo rojo", which is a local spicy red sauce made with red pepper, chili peppers, cumin, and garlic. It's rather tasty.

At the grocery store, tuna boxes line the shelves rather than cans. Yes, I'm sure there is a can inside the box, but I don't think it's round...

The week before New Year's, every grocery store had a grape display like this. For good luck in the new year you just have to eat 12 grapes at midnight that represent the 12 disciples. Someone told me that for best results you have to eat one on each bell gong of the clock at midnight. Who has a clock with gongs anymore? The catholic church in town does! Poor bell ringer. Imagine trying to coordinate each bell pull with popping a grape in your mouth? I am proud to report we did not have grapes in the Dye home. 

The Teide volcano got a healthy covering of snow on the north side. You couldn't actually see it from the south where we are.

I just have to include this picture taken from the balcony of the apartment where I'm staying. See the beautiful blue sky? See the majestic mountain? See the dead end one-way street? The arrow is pointing down away from the end of the street. The blue car is facing the right direction. The white vehicle is backwards. Sometimes I back into that street if no other parking spots are available. And this isn't the only one-way dead end street I've seen. There's a cultural insight in there somewhere.

Until next time,

Peace.

Erin

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