Baile de Navidad

To get into the Christmas spirit, we helped produce a pageant with some local kids (I guess my official title would have been “Executive Producer,” a fancy title for a job that consisted of bringing snacks for the kids and keeping them entertained until the director arrived). The real credit for the dance has to go to the “director,” a local guy named Luis. It seems impossible that I’ve failed to mention anything about Luis up to this point on the blog seeing as how important of a role he’s played in my time here so far, but it appears that I have. Luis is a renaissance man. He came from nothing, growing up in the dumps of Tegucigalpa. By some standards, people would still think he has nothing: no steady job, no family, no official positions in town. But there are other standards to be used to judge a man. He plays (at last count) 3 instruments (4 if you include the fact he can sing better than any person I’ve personally met), speaks surprisingly fluent English (though he speaks it as little as he can around us to help us learn Spanish better), has a detailed knowledge of world events and histories (with a special interest in the arts, referencing composers and artists I’ve never even heard of (though he also likes Bob Dylan and (of course) the Beatles)), paints/teaches/pantomimes, and the list just keeps on growing. In my opinion, he’s the most well-known, well-liked person in Talanga. When you’re walking down the street with him, it would be more unusual for him not to stop and talk with passerby’s (all of whom he seems to know by name (in a town of over 15,000, not too bad of a feat, especially seeing as that he’s not from here)). He’s Episcopalian, though volunteers much of his time in the Catholic Church as the choir director in addition to other pursuits. I’m sorry for going on like this. I just needed to give him a proper introduction before I give him the credit he deserves. So basically, Mike and I “started this pageant” which basically consisted of asking Luis to help us. Starting in the beginning of December, we would met with a group of local kids each Monday, and Luis would teach them songs and dances. Some people are just great with kids, and he’s one of them. With only about 7 hours of actual meeting time, he was able to teach them 8 coordinated singing/dancing routines. I’ll try to put my favorite song of theirs up online (internet connection pending), but at least enjoy a picture of the whole group.