Merry Christmas!

I suppose it's about time that I update my blog again. Although I'm sure it won't be as interesting as it was during my stay in Somoto.

We're right at home here in Prince Albert with the Longlitz family. It feels very very bizarre not to be on my way home for Christmas. This will definitely be a difficult one for me, but knowing that I'm not the only person going through these difficulties makes me feel a little better. I have a great support group, as usual. And although any of us live far apart we have been managing some small kind of contact through our workplaces.

We are fortunate in the fact that the majority of our workplaces are located in the downtown core, making it very easy to visit over lunch breaks. Work has been slow, as the winter is downtime for the Canadian Red Cross. I have been manning the front desk sporadically, reading up on the kind of work the Canadian Red Cross and International Red Cross do, and working on my own small pet projects. Our Office manager, Sue, will be going on leave for January; so it is likely that I will take care of the front desk for the majority of that time.

I have already started forming plans (with the help of the Red Cross staff) for my second Educational Activity day. One of the employees at the Prince Albert, Canadian Red Cross is of Cree descent. She has many connections within the First Nations community in Prince Albert and is keen on helping me to incorporate some First Nation culture into my day. She made mention of cooking a lunch with all of the traditional foods she grew up with (moose, elk, rabbit, etc.). Another employee of the Red Cross has a husband who works in one of the correctional facilities, so there's possibility for a prison tour as well. I've lived in Kingston all my life, and have yet to see the inside of a prison.

Josue is doing well. As you can see, he's making good use of his blog. He is currently witnessing his first sample of real snow, and for the moment is enjoying it (give it 3 months). Chocolate has become a major part of his life over the past 4 days. In Nicaragua Chocolate is relatively expensive and of poor quality. I remember him saying that he disliked chocolate in Nicaragua, but he can't seem to get enough of it in Canada! His plan is to bring a large amount of good chocolate back to Nicaragua for his friends and family.

Christmas isn't widely celebrated in Somoto, so many of our Christmas traditions are completely Alien to him. He wasn't familiar with putting presents under a tree, and seemed to be fairly excited by the prospect of getting a picture with Santa (although we never carried through with that intention). I'm so glad that he'll be able to experience a Canadian Christmas. Mingling with family (even though it will be someone else's family) and absorbing all of the food and candy that you can manage.

Merry Christmas!