Christmas Chapters

Chapter #1 - Simple Celebration
12.30 PM - Thursday, December 24th, 2009 - Taize Secretariat, Makati, Manila

after had a simple yet beautiful midday prayer special for celebrating Christmas, all of the volunteers, the brothers, and the sisters gathered together in the secretariat to had a lunch together. today's lunch is special because the brothers cooked it, especially Br. Joseph because he just arrived in Manila last Sunday and i just know that he also the main cooker in the community. haha! so the lunch is buffet, we placed a table in the middle of the room and put all the food and soft drinks on top of the table. as usual, before we start the lunch, we sing a song. and then, the party begins! ;p and the funniest part is, after lunch some of us played a game which is quite not monastic game ahahahaha ;p

Chapter #2 - Blessed Bread
19.00 PM - Thursday, December 24th, 2009 - Arnaiz Avenue St., Makati, Manila

suddenly Florian invite me to join his little spontaneous project before we depart to Tondo, to buy some Pandesal (Philippines' bread) and give them to the beggars in the pavement near our secretariat. so after we bought a dozen packages of Pandesal, with the other volunteers who each of us holding two bags, we walked along the pavement near our secretariat and saw that there's many beggars sat. ok it's time! so while we walked, we gave the bags to the old women and the children and also didn't forget to greet a Merry Christmas to them. and at a glance, suddenly many children came from every direction and surrounded us but we don't have any bags left. it happened so quick, less than a minute! and after walked quite far from them, we smiled with joyful to each other. great!

Chapter #3 - Jesus Was Born!
21.00 PM - Thursday, December 24th, 2009 - Sto. Nino Parish, Tondo, Manila

we went to Santo Nino Parish, one parish in Tondo where Florian work with them...
it's one of our Christmas schedule, that we will celebrate Christmas Vigil Mass and afterward we will stay one night in one family in this parish. so when we came, it seems that the previous mass is still going on and there's a lot of people there! so we go to the back of the church and we found the youth members already in the costume because they gonna perform "Panululuyan", the play when Marie and Joseph knocking on the doors in Bethlehem to find a place to have a birth. they gonna perform it during the 21.00 mass. so we have a little conversation with them and took some photos.

so around fifteen minutes to 21.00, the youth coordinator accompanied us to find some places to sit because the previous mass is already finished. but surprisingly, all seats already occupied! so what we did?? we sat on the floor just in front of the front seat. ahahaha it's my first time experience to sit on the floor during Christmas Vigil mass! but the surprise didn't stop yet. Florian already know very well the parish priest and he's the one who celebrated the mass on that night. so after the Panululuyan show, the priest gave the homily. but it seems that this priest is use to approached the people and ask them some questions in his homily. so it's predictable that this pries begins to approached us and he asked our names and where we came from one by one. it's sooooo nervous! imagine! i sat on the floor and this priest with mic in his hands, came to me and asked my name and where i came from with thousands eyes looked at me! even we can see ourselves in the projector!
another interesting part is, after the priest gave final blessings, Maria and Joseph show up again bringing the baby Jesus and many many people surround them try to touch the baby Jesus. and those people followed Maria and Joseph until they reached outside the church, of course with more effort because it's not so easy to walk between the crowd. and also we followed them, and the youth coordinator invite us to bless the baby Jesus by kiss the feet, and so we did it.
afterward, the youth coordinator invite us to meet the parish priest and also the host family that will host us for one night in their house. it's nice, we took a photo together and have a little conversation. and afterward we have to go as soon as possible to our host family house because the food is waiting there.

Chapter #4 - Surprise, Surprise!
23.00 PM - Thursday, December 24th, 2009 - Host Family, Tondo, Manila

this host family is a surprise for us. first of all, their house. more than our expectation! second thing, apparently the whole big family, relatives, and their friends already wait for us for a Christmas Party! ooooh my, even it's already 11pm in the evening, they still waited for us and didn't touch the food yet until we came! so when we came, quite amazed with the decoration, so many people, the karaoke machine, and the foods, we start to have our very late supper with them. it was soooo nice there were many children so sometimes we played with them. and also some people already grab the mic and start to sing the karaoke.
after we finish our very fine dinner, apparently they have a game and session for us. so we played the game, one of them is we have to hit the pot which hanging on top of us with stick but in closed eyes. inside the pot it were powder and candies. i'm as the first person who attempt to hit it, successfully failed, haha! and afterward we were dancing together, yeah of course "Nobody Nobody but You!". then it was performance from some teenagers who dance and a ballroom dance by the grandmother and her dance instructor. then for the final session, we had a slow dance number. and we closed that party with giving gifts to the family and we went to sleep around 2am.

Chapter #5 - Christmas Charity
09.00 AM - Friday, December 25th, 2009 - Missionary of Charity's House, Tayuman, Manila

in the morning we woke up around 8am and took our breakfast. it's a very nice breakfast, with some rest food from the night. and the host parents drove us by car to the Missionaries of Charity house then we say goodbye to them. i can see the mother's eyes were sparkling, it's so touching.

after passing through the big blue gate written "Missionaries of Charity - Home of Joy", we asked one of the sister that we want to meet the Superior. so she introduced us to the Superior and she told us that we can help the lunch distribution but at the moment we can join the Christmas mass which will celebrated by Cardinal Rosales. wowh! so apparently on that time they held a Christmas gathering so they invite around thousands homeless people to come and celebrate the Christmas with mass and some performance.

it's like a double surprise for us! first, we really looking forward to work with the sisters of Charity because we adore them, especially me! and second, we didn't expect before that there will be a mass and celebrated by Cardinal himself!

so then we sat along with the other thousands homeless people and also with the other sisters of Charity to celebrate the mass. after the mass is finished, one sister took us to meet the Cardinal. so we have a very short conversation and took a photo with the Cardinal and the Superior. perfect!!
afterward, it's time to work! we put our bag and start to distribute the food. so all the people will keep sit to watch the animations while the volunteers and the sisters lining up and pass the food to the people. it's quite interesting to distribute the food and the drink because we only have to stand and pass the plates and the bottles to the person next to us. the best thing is when i pass the plates and the bottles to the people, it's nice to see how they smile with joy.

after around 30 minutes distributing lunch, we took our lunch. after i finished my lunch, i talked to someone and apparently he's a priest so he took me to visit the chapel. and the chapel is simple yet beautiful! we managed to have a short silence there and, it's beautiful.
just a second after i came out from the chapel, one sister greet me in Bahasa Indonesia. wooooooooowh! i met a sister of Charity who came from Indonesia! apparently she came from West Sumatra and we talked a lot. she took me to the place where they take care the homeless people who were sick. and it's very nice to see how they smile when they see me visit them.

afterward, we still thirst for work so we help the sisters to clean the area after all the people left. this is the best part because we can work together with the sister and manage to have some little conversation. i met sisters that came from Ireland, New Zealand, and India.

around 12 pm we have to leave not because the sisters want to have a prayer but also we have to catch the bus to go to Batangas, to visit Janice.

Chapter #6 - Night in Batangas
19.00 PM - Friday, December 25th, 2009 - Bauan, Batangas

it's 2 hours by bus from Manila to Batangas and around 3pm we arrive in Janice house after she fetch us in the bus station. apparently her cousin held a thanksgiving after get their house blessed just in the next of Janice house. so we join the early supper and suddenly Michio called Florian! so one by one we talked to Michio with joy! then Janice introduce us to her friends from her parish youth.
because six of us were craving to find a beautiful beach, Janice and her friends took us to the beach. it's already dark but it's nice to see water and rocks and spend our night there. we talked, we laughed, we shared. suddenly we forgot about our monastic life! ahahahaha ;p

around 11pm we decided to come home because among us volunteers want to have our time together to share. so when we get in the Janice house, we sit in the table and start to eat anything that we can found; chips, cakes, lasagna, ice cream, apple juice, etc. ahahahaha.

then we continued with midnight sharing. yeah after 2 months of being busy and never had a chance to be together, i think it's our first time to being together and have a deeper sharing about anything. we finished our sharing around 2am because many people already fall a slept.

in the morning we woke up around 8am and Florian was trying to drive a jeepney! ahahaha so cool! after say goodbye to Janice, we depart from Batangas by bus around 9am and arrived again in Manila around 11am. so we back to real world and also back to monastic life ;p