A different Chrismast

Today I want to make a thank you to all the people who have received the Venezuelan immigrants in their lands and made us feel at home. Especially this Christmas, when we would be having dinner and sharing at home with our families, but we are prevented by all the problems that our country is going through right now.

Even so, I have felt like in family, and I know that many Venezuelan friends who are in other parts of the world also feel that way because they have been treated with great affection by the natives of the new country where they live.

The truth is that all this situation has challenged us, we have been forced to separate ourselves from our loved ones and that hurts. But in turn we have had the opportunity to meet new places, wonderful people, cultures different from ours that enrich us and make us grow.

The environment, the people, the places, the food, everything is different, they are all new experiences that are worth living.

This is the Birth we made with the children of the house for the Christmas decoration. They still receive gifts from Santa and the child Jesus , they were worried because we did not have a small tree, so we decided to make the birth with cardboard, scissors, paste and colors.

We had a lot of fun, I remembered when in my house my little brothers and I helped (or we thought we were doing) to mom to put the birth under the tree. For me, Christmas is about that, about celebrating and sharing, creating good memories.

Here in Spain the Birth is called the Bethlehem. These days we were invited to see the living Bethlehem they put together in the village, it was very beautiful and realistic. I could not take good pictures, it was night and there was smoke from the bonfires, and well, my camera is not very good hehe , but I can tell you that it was very beautiful. I am not a religious person, but I enjoy participating in the traditions, what matters is the meaning it has for people. For me it meant a lot that our neighbors took care to invite us and take us there to see the work and then to enter the Bethlehem and see each position of the trades of the time, and eat polvorones, drink some coffee and hear the Father sing Christmas carols.

Here our neighbors have treated us the best. Some days they have brought home delicious dishes and also wine that they prepare themselves. There are days when they have sat down at the table with us to eat our typical arepas, something that we eat every day and they find it a bit strange. Sometimes we fill them with hams and sausages that they like the most so that it is a combination of our food with theirs, but other days they have eaten with great pleasure our arepas stuffed with mechada or carneotas with cheese.

At the same time they have invited us to eat their delicious recipes of marinated loin, their different types of hams and delicious cheeses, their sweet quince ... We have been invited to meet us taking the heat by your fireplace, which is really nice for us taking into account that here is making a tremendous cold that we are not used to. In short, they have been very warm with us.

Today I want to send a greeting to the Venezuelans who are around the world and remind them that everything will be fine, the situation in our country will not be like this forever, and in the meantime, enjoy the cultural exchanges, the warmth with which we have been received , of the time shared with the new friendships we have made, and we are grateful.

I am grateful because I can use the internet to keep in touch with my family. My mother told me that she is relieved to be able to talk to me every day. She knows that in her youth she would not have existed as now. Now we are all connected. I can see the smile of my mom and my brothers when I talk to her by video call and that makes my heart happy.

So, to the Venezuelan steemians who come by and read my post, in the midst of all the difficulties that we have been going through, we are grateful for all the good things that we have: the love of our families, the luck of meeting in our countries destination with good people and to share and make cultural exchanges that make us better people, the opportunity we have to start over, get ahead, and help our loved ones to also overcome the dark trance that crosses our country.

To the steemians of all the countries of the globe who have received us with such affection and have given us all their support in the undertaking of this new trip: Thank you! You are an example of the kindness and love that coexist in this world with all the complexities of the human being.

I know it's already 27 but even these days we keep celebrating and sharing ! Merry Christmas to all!