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Año means year, but someone tried to erase the tilde
on the n on this sign in an effort to make it say ano, which means anus.So, happy anus everyone! |
Like Yin and Yang or the balance in the force, every
Christmas has its ups and downs. There was one Christmas where I took a hockey
puck to the face from my dear older brother. There was also that fateful
Christmas morning where I started hyperventilating because I was so excited
about Santa’s delivery. I’m not certain in which year that last one
was, but probably more recent than my memory would like to admit, I’m sure. But
that’s not the point! The point is, there are good and bad parts to the
holidays.
This year, I was excited to have (most of) my family come
down to spend Christmas with me in Bogota. Molly had already visited and Ben
recently got a great new job, so he and Ellory didn’t have as much free time
around the holidays to make the trip. But I was able to pick up Mom, Dad, and
Michaela from the airport a few days before Christmas in order to show them the
city I’ve come to call a second home.
Following proper holiday tradition, their first day was a
mixed bag. The monastery was having a luncheon fiesta for the cooks, janitorial
staff, and grounds members on my family’s first full day in Colombia, and we
were playing lawn games and people were dancing. It would have been a grand old
time fit for Christmas lore had my mother not gotten sick later that day,
probably a combination of the altitude and diet change. Everybody gets sick
here at some point. Later, one of the quieter monks, Fabio, apologized to me for not
being as interested in having a good time with everyone else. This was because
his mother had recently passed away, and he said he still found it hard to
enjoy himself. After I assured him that an apology wasn’t necessary and was
sorry for his loss, I also thought more positively about my own mother simply
having a headache and feeling queasy.
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| Family, minus Ben and Molly, plus driver, Plinio. |
The next couple of days involved showing the family the
surrounding area. We organized a day trip to Villa de Leyva, a colonial town
north of Bogota, as a way to see what this part of the country was like before
the Bogota metropolis sprouted. The next night, Christmas Eve, involved a
celebration here in the monastery. The main event was a game of celebrity
charades, where we split up into two teams and acted out whichever name we were
given. Apparently, I drew the short straw, because while the person before me
got Shakira (just shake your hips and Colombians understand who you’re talking
about) and the person after me drew Obama (just look professional while you
mime talking, and their first answers will be either the Colombian or U.S.
president), I got Anselm Grun. Don’t know who he is? Neither did I. Frustration
commenced. Google tells me he’s a German Benedictine who has written more books
than most read in a lifetime. Still never heard of him. A playful twist on the
game was that some of the monks were included in the names drawn, which meant
those who drew their monastic brothers had to act out their most unique
character traits, something that wouldn’t be possible at larger monasteries.
After the fun was had and the food was eaten, gifts were handed out to each of
us. My parents had also brought gifts from home to give to the community, so
explaining the Collegeville and Saint John’s picture books was interesting. My
Dad had also made a Benedictine cross and lasered into the back the words
“Monasterio Benedictino de Tibati, de la familia Roske, 2015.” I trust I don’t
have to translate that. It was great to see such appreciation on the monks’
faces, especially since I’m pretty bad at gift giving. Come to think of it, I
didn’t make the dang cross, just presented it. So, I'm still bad at gift giving.
Christmas morning is less important than the night before in
South America, which meant we had no obligations and decided to head back into
town. Unfortunately, the Gold Museum, which is one of the more popular sites in
Bogota, was closed. So we made up for it by going to see the new Star Wars. I
had already seen it, but still enjoyed watching that beautiful lady Rey
discover the power of the force all over again.
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| Another Roske tradition, Santa Bear. |
Again, the good was soon matched by the bad. Later on Christmas
day, I was on my way to the monastery to deliver a sweater to a monk who had
become one of my closer friends here. I had commented to Brother Esteban one
day that the sweater I was wearing, which had been a gift years back but I had
rarely worn it because it was too small, would be his Christmas present. Making
good on my promise, I made my way to his door. After presenting the pretty
modest gift (yet another example of my gift giving abilities), he asked when my
family was leaving. I said tomorrow, we were going on vacation to a warmer part
of Colombia. He said, oh, I’ll be leaving before you get back. I asked for how
long, to which he responded, “Oh, a while…” It wasn’t until later, when Prior
Philip asked me to help him print a document with the monastic letterhead
that I understood what Esteban meant. A friend was leaving the monastery, and
I found out when I printed his Exclaustration documents (required when leaving
a Benedictine monastery, sort of like annulment papers, but from the church). I
was taken aback, though not shocked, as Esteban had mentioned before how he
didn’t know if this was the right place for him even though he’d spent more
than a couple years here. People enter and leave your life, even the monks who
you perceive to be staples of the monastery for the rest of their lives. I
guess you just have to appreciate and learn from them as they come and go.
J.
Spanish word of the day: A couple years ago, I found myself in southern Chile with a good friend, Craig (who's currently in Spain with the BVC this year). It was Chilean Independence, and we had found our way to what was essentially a barn dance. The details can be found here, but my favorite part involved a drunk woman coming up to us and blabbering about how we have to take advantage of our time here. When saying this, she used the word aprovechar which means to "take advantage of."
Wait, wait, wait, since friends leaving and drunk Chilean women would be a sad way to end a Christmas blog, I can't go without mentioning that this Christmas evening brought the twenty-fourth installment of the Michael and Peggy
Roske Christmas song. For those of
you not in the know, my mother has taken it upon herself to write a song sung
to the tune of various popular Christmas carols as a way to personalize the
holiday for her family (as well as serve as the Christmas letter sent out to
neighbors, family and friends). Each child gets one verse about their lives
since the last Christmas, making for some lengthy songs over the years. It’s a
great tradition, one that brings as much teasing as it does joy, since our
parents usually only run through it once or twice before “performing” it. Since
we were down two siblings in Bogota, it was recorded by Michaela. Therefore...
...the song in my head lately is Michael and Peggy's 2015 Christmas Song!! I've posted the lyrics here as well, if you can't hear all of them. Also, we Skyped with Molly for it, so if you see my parents talking to no one, it's the iPad.
24th Christmas Song
for Our Family:
2015
[sung to the tune of
“Go Tell It On the Mountain”]
Refrain: Gone visiting the [Andes] mountains,
Christmas abroad, we’re nowhere near you
Gone visiting our BVC-er, were off to the
southern hemisphere [almost]!
When J.J. reached his last
year of college at St. John’s, he thought he’d try his wings out by going back
abroad.
Cum laude in hand he signed
on with the Benedictine Volunteer Corps [BVC],
And off he’s gone to Bogotá,
teaching middle school as Señor
“Hota Hota”! [Spanish pronunciation for “J.J.”]
Refrain: Gone, living with the monks at Tibatí,
lesson-planning, tutoring, and coaching basketball,
Gone but with new skills for his resume
and blog, including Spanish, long-hair styling and ping pong!
Master’s in hand, our
engineer hit the pavement hard this year, until WindLogic finally hired him Ben
had had to persevere.
Likewise did wife Ellory, awaiting
her career to pursue,
Friends & family, brews
& board games, Frisbee teammates—having good times and each other got them
through.
Refrain: Gone to work a job he’s waited for, Ben’s
now reached a nice new level of stability
Gone off
work for now is Ellory, time to nourish her own creativity.
And Molly had a great year at
the Cloquet Forestry Center, her boss/mentor kept her busy as administrator
& presenter.
Closer than she’d been since
college, she deepened ties to friends and family – ‘twas great,
But then she followed the job
when it moved her from Minn to Colorado State [University, Forestry Dept.]
Refrain: Now Gone is Molly to the [Rocky] mountains,
we moved her there this fall, a pleasant road trip to Ft. Collins,
No more quick drives home to visit family
and friends, but we keep an eye on “Cheap Flights” from both ends.
Michaela works too hard –
Grampa Tom sees that first-hand [she lives with him, so he can still be at
home]
Her students are so lucky, as
is Habitat [for Humanity]’s extended clan [she’s even on their Board now]
Confirmation class, Parish
Council and service on a bunch of committees,
And a Spanish Club she
recently founded (about one member we’ve started to tease [her]!)
Refrain: Gone with us to the [Andes] mountains,
Michaela’s used to hills on bike and metaphorically,
Ups and downs with Grampa and her students
and friends, she’s got challenges she scales ‘bout every day.
We two traipsed off to the
[Sierra] mountains with G & G [Hal & Dorothy] last “Feb” [visiting
Sandy & Don],
And sailed Leech Lake with
Eggermonts, a great time back in “Sept.”
But ‘15’s peak was early,
when the kids blew us away, with a surprise 60th birthday party –
we’re both now getting gray!
Refrain: Soon returning from the mountains,
Woodshop to run, Archives collection to move (twice!) We’ll be praying for another good year, and
hoping yours is every bit as nice.
Peace and Love to all from the Roske
Family!
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| Nailed it. |
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