¡Feliz Adviento!
You know those songs that seem to just perfectly describe your life and how you’re feeling in the moment? My fellow missionary, Megan, refers to those songs as falling under what she calls the soundtrack of our lives. This whole month has been full of said songs. So, here’s my latest release: The Soundtrack of Ryan’s Most Recent Month at the Finca - A Tribute.
(For the record, I wrote none of these songs, clearly, but I think they’re good and would recommend listening to them)
Track 1: “Changes” by David Bowie
It blows me away by how much can happen in a month. I’m going to blame it on the Advent season because there has been a lot of change and new beginnings here at the Finca. The church is covered in purple now, there are large, bright, and blinking Christmas trees outside of the houses (ours even sings if we want it to), the weather is the slightest bit cooler, and the Finca population has begun to change with the previous missionaries returning to their home countries and the hiring of a new social worker. I might have expected that after about two-and-a-half months of living here there would be some sort of routine or normalcy, and strangely, that sense of normalcy is in fact the constant change. Our community ebbs and flows as new missionaries come in every year, the old ones leave, missionary groups from the states come for service trips periodically, the Franciscan Sisters move around every so often, occasionally administration and staff will leave, and kids age out or are able to rejoin their families. It’s not just change within the community, it even finds its way in little things, for example, our weekly provisions have us eating this soy rice stuff that was recently donated instead of our normal white rice, or sometimes instead of red meat, a kind benefactor gifts the Finca with frozen crab and lobster. I know it appears like the only change involves personnel and food, but I promise there is more to be talked about in the rest of the blog (I have a whole albums worth to explain all of it, as you can see)
Track 2: “You’ve Got a Friend” by James Taylor
Track 3: “Thank You for Being a Friend” by Andrew Gold
On Wednesday, December 4th, we said good-bye—correction, “see you later,” they would say—to the veteran missionaries of the Finca. We spent eight weeks with them in total, and boy were they awesome. We were a community of twelve during that time and there was never a dull moment. It was an incredible gift to learn from them and see first-hand how being a missionary here blazed a fire within their hearts. I don’t fully understand how a group of seven newbies works its way into an established group of five powerhouse women, but somehow we all got along and built such a strong missionary team in that short a time that I truly wish we could’ve remained that way for this coming year. What a power house that would have been. Nevertheless, they have imparted all their wisdom to ensure success in the coming year. I may have just asked that they would have set the bar a bit lower before we arrived!
Track 4: “Freeze” by Andy Grammer
I’m sure you all know that feeling of wishing time would just stop and never move again, that exact moment when everything seems perfect. That moment for me happens every year at Thanksgiving. Despite being in a completely new location, surrounded by none of the typical attendees, I loved every minute of it. We hosted a Thanksgiving lunch in our Missionary House for about thirty people which meant waking up at 5:00am to begin cooking (in all my 21 previous Thanksgivings, I never knew how involved making the meal was) followed by a Thanksgiving Mass in Mohoguay where we also shared hot chocolate and rolls for all who attended. Here’s what made it so special, however. All 12 of us were there, in the house, contributing one way or another where our talents were best utilized, whether that was decorating, making food, greeting the guests, DJ-ing, we all played a role. The smells, the story telling, the laughs, all of it was so special, and instead of being sad I was very comforted knowing back home my family was sharing in the same joy and laughter that this holiday intrinsically carries with it. I don’t have a proper way of describing this except that in some way knowing that they were in Maryland or New York, Ohio or North Carolina, or wherever, they were just as thankful as I for all that has blessed our lives, the most important being each other.
Track 5: “The Little Things” by Carlos Bertonatti
Track 6: “Hallelujah (Exclusive Single for Visiting Orphans) (feat. Tulsi)” by Johnnyswim
Frequently I find myself sitting back and appreciating all “the little things” that living life at the Finca has to offer. Put another way, there are these instances of “Hallelujah,” an exhalation of peace and joy that just says “Woah, what a blessing this is.” My favorites are things like drinking coffee and eating bread with one of the Sors or laying in the hammock beat boxing (terribly on my end), rapping, singing, and talking about our future lives with one of our older boys. Most recently we had our grounds fumigated to kill of insects and the like. The events for the day were canceled and we were forced to spend the day at the beach. How dreadful. If you can imagine this, it was about 24 of us all on the beach. Smiles, laughter, sun, clouds, waves crashing, music bumping, jumping in the waves, boogie boarding, throwing the football. It was amazing. There are all sorts of little comforts that sneak their way into our days, the most recent occurring around the dinner table with an advent wreath at the center and reading a different the advent reflection the night, or watching two of our younger kids during Mass with their arms wrapped around each other listening to the homily only to see them trying to squeeze the life out of the other’s hand during the Our Father (my brothers will appreciate that one, I think). Just drumming these memories up to write them…*sigh*…Hallelujah!
Track 7: “Sing Loud” by Alpha Rev
The kids here LOVE singing. There are at least three or four songs sung every morning prayer (accompanied by drums and a tortuga [tortoise] shell…I play that), our afternoon prayer services often have a song or two in there as well, and outside of prayer, a popular song heard around the Finca is “A Thousand Years” by Christina Perri. However, they’re best vocal chops were displayed this past month while driving to Ceiba to see Frozen II (this was a treat given to our kids who earned an 85 or higher average at the end of the school year). I think what made this particular trip so great was just realizing the universality of things like riding for hours in a car and jamming to all your favorite tunes. The only unfortunate part was being asked to translate “Perfect” by Ed Sheeran while it was playing. The experience was made worse since I just am not that great at translating on the spot quite yet and that I don’t especially love that song.
Track 8: “Brothers” by Penny and Sparrow
We tested the limits of some of our kids a few weeks ago when we took them on a hike to the Torres the other day. It was 3 hours up the mountain and another 3 hours down. It was a challenge even for me at times (I say as if I’m some mountain climbing expert or something), but I was so proud of the kids. One of our girls was struggling for most of the way up, but she was so determined to get to the top. The cool thing about it was watching everyone around her rally and cheer her on. We made it to the top with very minimal whining and very hungry tummies (praise the Lord for baleadas!), and what greeted us was a spectacular view of our hometown, Trujillo. You should’ve seen the light in these kids’ faces. It was a tremendous and fantastic view for about five minutes until we were suddenly engulfed in a cloud. All around us was white and fresh feeling. Perhaps I should’ve been more upset about the obscured view, but I’ll tell you, I was truly captivated by the idea of living in the clouds.
Track 9: “A Little More” by Cody Fry
Now that the kids are out of school, Social Work asks that we in the missionary community prepare three weeks for the kids of what is essentially summer school with a few games here and there. Now, tell me that’s not just the lamest thing you’ve ever heard! We started two weeks ago and boy am I in for a treat come February. I mean, I’m only teaching at most three kids at a time and it’s kicking my butt, however, I’m learning so much, the biggest thing being that coloring and 7up are real winners with the kids. No, what I’ve really learned is how much teachers are actually superheroes in disguise. I teach at most 3 kids at the moment, and just among the three of them, they each have a different learning style for math and reading. Patience has been really key, advanced planning, and exploring various ways of teaching something so as to keep things fun and engaging (thank you Michael for pointing these things out to me). Aside from teaching, I’ve acquired a few other practical skills such as tortilla making and driving stick shift (yeehaw!). We have these old, rugged Toyota Land Cruisers we’ve named El Presidente and El Tanque [The Tank], and they’re incredibly forgiving with the clutch but oh so fun to drive.
Track 10: “Courage” by Clay Finnesand
I have some news to share. Starting in January I have been asked to step into the role of Missionary Coordinator for my class of missionaries. I will be acting as the face of the missionaries, essentially, maintaining relationships with the Finca team here in Honduras and in the States. I’m very honored to have been asked and look forward to representing the missionaries as best I can. The song choice for this paragraph is an accurate representation of what I’ll be needing as the year goes on in this new role, but a close second would be the “following the leader” song in Peter Pan with the lost boys (Tee-dum, tee-dee, a tiddly-dum-dee-ay).
Track 11: “O Holy Night”
I’ve only recently discovered the uniqueness of Advent. It’s a time of preparation, a time filled with hope and new beginnings, and a new liturgical year for the Church. I had a chance to dig a little deeper into this topic with one of the older missionaries here and she kind of blew my mind. I explained to her how I found it interesting that both Advent and Lent are seasons we associate with the color purple. I didn’t see why they should be connected since Lent is a very penitential season and Advent more joyful. Sure, they’re both about waiting, I guess, but everything else about them seems to be opposite. Here’s the kicker as Emily presented it me. Why are we waiting? Why did we need a savior, a source of hope? We were a troubled world, a people in despair, and that’s why we needed Christ, that’s why we needed something, or someone rather, to put our hope in and save us from our weariness. These lines suddenly have a much bigger meaning than before: “And the soul felt its worth”, “The weary world rejoices.” I know we’ve just entered the third week of Advent, but in case anyone was interested, here is a link to the Advent reflections our missionary team has been reading this year: http://priestlyformation.org/resources/fr.-mark-toups/theotokos/first-week-of-advent.html?fbclid=IwAR20HIt3heC_E34j3Y5B6BluBt_GWuiKETytT_SQyZFarmr5zbbtl8-xtJ0
I hope everyone is enjoying this time of year. It still feels like summer so the idea that you might be reading this wrapped up in 7 layers and drinking hot cocoa by a fire is just absurd. Swimsuit Santa and I will just be here on the beach soaking up the sun and drinking frozen margaritas. Mele Kalikamaka! B-)
Paz y Bien
Ryan
