After working on Christmas, I was NOT expecting much that night. My hopes weren’t that high from the day before either where I saw an impromptu street parade and people at several tiendas in Archidona dancing to blaring techno music. That night however, I was pleasantly surprised.
That Christmas night couldn’t have ended up more different than what I was used to for Christmas in the US, but there was one element of the night that I cherished the most and had always been anxious for in the US. Family. Every year in the US my family spends the holidays together, and we get to see almost everyone. At the Caverns, everyone from our foundation, Ruku Kausai, comes together to celebrate Christmas. The night passed by with games such as musical chairs and another where we had to dance to kitchwa music with a tomato against our heads without if falling. After the games ended, my sisters started to become excited, and I couldn’t help but become curious what would come next. Then, Marta, my supervisor, stood up and gave a little speech about how the year went and wished us all a Feliz Navidad. Names were called out, and as each person went up they were given a bag of caramelos (a mix of cookies and candy), which my sisters had been waiting for all night. Eventually, all the names had been called when I heard, “Trevor Porter Grefa”, Grefa being my family’s name. Music started to play and when we began to dance, I found myself truly enjoying my strangest Christmas, and my new family.
