Family news

We had a family Christmas.



Chano cooked...for "buena noche", we had pizza, soup and salad...and for christmas noon dinner we had macaroni Alfredo with salad.

We grow the lettuce on our organic farm...inside greenhouses of plastic wrap. So it's safe to eat.

Christmas morning, we went to early mass and then spent two hours giving out 5peso coins to all the neighboring kids who go door to door for gifts on Christmas. We also gave the moms 20 pesos. About 10 am we ran out of money and locked the door, except for the usual beggars and for staff who came to say Merry Christmas.

I should explain we have a few beggars whose "job" is begging...they are not destitute but poor and supplement the income. We also have a few old people who we help with their medicines. Medicines here are expensive: Amlodipine is 8 peso generic, for example, which isn't much but it does add up, especially for farmers who eat their own food and don't have much cash income...and artificial tears is 250 a bottle (for a distant relative with "dry eyes" and mild sjorgen's syndrome).  Some people come for free rice: we usually give the out of date rice, which is still good but is past the shelf life.

For Christmas supper, we went to Angie's: lots of shrimp, mussels, and barbecue...she also had ham...which is a tradition for Christmas.

The ham was fresh, not canned, and delicious, but since Ruby wasn't used to it (it didn't taste like the local "tocino") I ate hers too.

when I rant about helping the poor, it doesn't mean I am a puritan: balance is needed. I mean, Jesus' first miracle was to supply wine for a wedding feast.

There is a time for everything: a time to be born, a time to die, a time to laugh, a time to mourn...