Christmas at La Ciudad de Los Ninos

Christmas is always an emotional season, and this year that was especially the case for me and the boys of San Felix.  The Peruvian school year begins in March and ends in December, which means that December, rather than May, is the typical season for high school graduations.  Well here at Ciudad, the oldest boys have their graduation in mid December, but then remain at Ciudad until Christmas day.   This is customary for all the boys at Ciudad, because of their backgrounds many of the families cannot provide a Christmas celebration at home for the boys.  And so Christmas is a time of celebration and joy, but it is also a time that looms with the grim reminder that many emotional goodbyes are soon to come.  This was so for my experience.  I was celebrating Christmas away from my home and family, in a foreign country, without any snow (which I was missing), and on with this I was also saying goodbye to the boys with whom I had forged great friendships.  

Christmas celebrations began on Noche Buena (Christmas eve), with Mass being celebrated around 9:00 pm. Following the Mass, all the boys went to the comedor for supper, where all the tables were set and decorated.  Amist the tables were nine giant piles of packages for the boys, each pile for a respective Pabellon.  It was a festive evening of good food (lomo saltado) and laughter.  Boys will be boys, and as such, they were rambunctuous and filled with energy.  This evening seemed to me to be the only evening where the boys were able to relax and enjoy their time.

Another tradition in Peru on Noche Buena is to light off fireworks at midnight. There was a gradual crescendo  of fuegos artificiales, and at midnight the sky was illuminated by fireworks, lighting up all of San Juan de Miraflores and neighboring suburbs.  Unfortunately, I do not have any pictures of that beautiful sight because I gave my camera to one of the boys in my pabellon to take pictures.  This is was I got....

 Cristian, Joe, and Yoel

Brothers Cristian and Jonathan (the photographers for the night)

Jose Zapata and Jonathan

Christmas Eve at about 11:30 the lights went out cutting short the party.  Usually gifts would be opened at midnight, but due to the lights going out, we waited to the next morning.