Christmas in Nuevo 2013

Imagine losing your job.  No Obamacare, no unemployment, minimal family to help in the area, six kids with one on the way, and no steady income to count on in the future.  Imagine having to take kids out of school to work for pennies, so the family can eat.  Imagine having long term pain from a car crashing into you.  Imagine the stress of wondering how to support your family.  Unimaginable.

That describes Pedro,  Rosa and the kids.  Pedro goes out early morning to fish, with one or more of the older kids and they race the catch home.  Rosa then goes out in their neighborhood  with the smaller kids, and sells the fish, door to door.  We recommended Pedro to other cruisers for boat work, as well as having him work on our boat.  We are running out of work, but with the new outboard (used) that we bought him, Pedro is able to fish.  He used to row himself out into the Bay, now he cans sleep longer and get to the fishing

We feel that they are family and despite the  awful poverty, they have such an incredible richness of spirit, we are blessed by them.  They may worry, but they laugh and know that somehow it is going to work out.  But the worry after a while grinds anyone down.  So we had a party for Christmas.

Presents, Robert cooking a turkey and the trimmings, everyone playing with the toys and the older ones having a poker fest and lots of laughing on the boat.  We  stuffed ourselves and then went to play soccer.  Futbul.   With our own rules, and Pedro yelling out different plays to the kids.  I was referee.  Rosa and the girls were the audience.  We laughed and laughed some more. 

                                                              

Robert and Rosa getting ready to serve the turkey.  He also made mashed potatoes with gravy.  I made a stuffing that was apple, onion and sage - pretty good after all these years of red wine, sourdough  and spinach.  Along with the fruit salad, I made a salsa of pineapple and a green chile, chopped up with red pepper for Rosa, who really likes hot sauces. None of that was left....not cranberries, but definitely popular with the blandness of our American food.



Ice cream after the soccer game.  The younger three boys really got into playing, while the older one, Joshua (Hosoy) was more laid back.   Goal posts were laid out with string and Robert and Pedro were goalies.

Now, this was a great Christmas.  While not our regular family, it is family and a family that decided to just have fun and forget everything for a day.  It was literally magic.

Sebastian, Adolpho (El Toro), Rosa, Joshua, and in fron, Natalya, Crystal and Daniel.