A little girl's Christmas wish
Resourceful little Trixie, eight-years-old, prepared her own "jingle bells" out of bottle caps one early morning. While showing traces of the young girl’s hard labour, her grandma Gloria whom she calls mama says, “She pounded the caps with hammer here and there… Then when she came back from school, she finished it by running them through a wire. I can hear her practicing incomplete lyrics of a Christmas carol every now and then these days.”
With a sparkle in her eyes, Trixie shares, “We are already practicing some Christmas carols to serenade the people in our neighbourhood. I am also the smallest in the group but they like to include me because our caroling loots are bigger when I am around.”
“I’d like to become a teacher so that I can help other children reach their dream.
Trixie lives in a cramped semi-open nipa hut, a traditional house made of bamboo slats and palm leaves, composed of one room where her extended family cooks, eats, and sleeps. Placed at the centre of the room is Christmas tree, a colourful reminder of the season for giving and sharing. She‘s with her grandmother while her siblings and own parents live separately somewhere else. The young lady shares her noble dream, “I’d like to become a teacher so that I can help other children reach their dream. So I go to school even if I’m wearing a dilapidated pair of shoes. I also sell delicious puddings in school that my grandmother cooks so that I can have some school allowance. Then, I will use my money from the caroling to buy school materials like my shoes.”
In the past Noche buena feasts, Trixie was thankful for a handful of goods shared to her by full-pledged sponsored families. “I was happy that I was able to receive spaghetti noodles, carbonara, and sardines last year even if I am not a member yet,” she says.
As a newly registered child this year though, Trixie would love to have a complete “noche-buena” package (Christmas food basket), just like the others in the group.
As Trixie greets the coming Christmas season, she wishes to delights her audience with a more complete tune of her carols this time around. She adds, “More than the singing and material gifts, I pray that my family will be whole this Christmas.”
With your help, World Vision hopes to bring a portion of Christmas joy to children and families in communities that it serves so children like Trixie can fully sing “Christmas has come, let us sing beautiful songs because God is love.”
By Jay Mark Mijares