Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!
I must say that this has definitely been a strange holiday season for me…far different than any other. For the most part it didn’t really feel like Christmas, but rather more like summer since it’s been in the 80’s here. I did however listen to Christmas carols daily to remind me of the season and there were a number of holiday commercials on TV. In town here Christmas is by no means as big of a holiday as it is for us in the states. A few people put up a few decorations or a couple strings of lights, but for the most part you couldn’t really tell Christmas day from any other. In fact, absolutely nothing happens here on the 25th. The big day is the 24th. Generally the families get together for the day, some coming from as far as Lima. At 12am (technically the 25th, I know) they have their big Christmas dinner…not a minute before. I spent the day with my host family at the house of my host father’s father. He has 14 brothers and sisters, however only 5 were able to attend. They killed a pig in the morning which we ended up eating throughout the day. Other than eating I really didn’t do much except play hopscotch with my host sisters and their cousins(I won). In the evening I returned to town to eat dinner with the doctors. The food sat in front of us for a good 15 minutes until the clock struck 12am. After hugs and a toast with peach wine were ate our dish of oven baked chicken(a rarity!) and noodles. The big Christmas food item here is called panetón, which is somewhat like fruitcake but much tastier. I’ve had my fair share of panetón in the past few weeks!
It has actually been a fairy eventful few weeks. Besides Christmas, I also attended three graduation ceremonies, for the kindergarten, primary school and secondary school. As I had mentioned in previous entries, I was the godfather for the primary school graduation. This meant that I had to buy gifts, rent the sound equipment and buy/prepare cakes. The last time I was in the city, I spent nearly every waking hour running around buying various items for the ‘promoción’. Instead of buying cakes (which are not quite within the budget of a volunteer!) I baked them with the godmother… We had to bake four of them, or enough for 70 people. That took pretty much a full day in itself!
But anyway, I was a bit nervous for the actual event since I really didn’t have any idea what I was supposed to do. I only knew that I’d have to give a speech…nothing new for the gringo. (It’s been a joke with my dentist friend, Cesar…I always complain that I have to speak at every event, so whenever we’re at a formal event he yells ‘Que hable el gringo!’ or in so many words, ‘make the gringo speak’.) So it was to start at 7:00pm. At 9:00pm the MC started calling to the families through the sounds system to come to the school since half were still missing. Somewhere between 9:30 and 10:00 we finally kicked off the evening. Despite my anxiety I actually had a really good time… after my speech and having to dance the waltz in from of everyone. For the meal they gave me a whole backed chicken, a mountain of rice, and 6 pieces of yucca… I nearly finished the chicken, but didn’t touch the other two plates. After we ate, we danced, and danced, and danced… until 3am. I’ve danced more in the past two weeks than I have in my life.. and the crazy thing is that I’m actually growing to enjoy it. The highlight of the night, however came at the very end. I was just about to head out the gate to head back to my house when one of the mothers came walking up to me. I figured she’d say ‘hey thanks for buying the kids the gifts and such’ which would have been a fairly reasonable way of demonstrating one’s appreciation…. It wasn’t until she was about 5 feet away from me that I realized what she was carrying. She handed me the live rooster and left… I couldn’t say anything but…. ‘gracias’…. What else do ya say? I’d never really practiced my lines for such a situation. So I tried as hard as I could to pretend like it was no big deal… like receiving livestock is an everyday thing… and I walked to my house… wearing a suit and carrying a chicken.
The following night was the secondary schools graduation. That one lasted until 5:30am. Interestingly each graduating senior is awarded a case of beer for making it through 11 years of schooling. Between the graduations, baptism parties, and Christmas celebrations I haven’t had a whole lot of sleep…then again my daily afternoon siestas probably more than make up for it!
Picking back up on the Christmas theme, I was also responsible for buying 60 personal sized panetones for a ‘chocolatada’. It’s an event where all the kids in the town are invited to come eat panetón, as well as other treats, and drink hot chocolate. The hot chocolate here is the real stuff. The cocoa comes straight from the fields/trees. I’ve enjoyed playing with the kids. After they get over the scariness of the big white giant, they actually begin to enjoy playing games with me.
I must say that this has definitely been a strange holiday season for me…far different than any other. For the most part it didn’t really feel like Christmas, but rather more like summer since it’s been in the 80’s here. I did however listen to Christmas carols daily to remind me of the season and there were a number of holiday commercials on TV. In town here Christmas is by no means as big of a holiday as it is for us in the states. A few people put up a few decorations or a couple strings of lights, but for the most part you couldn’t really tell Christmas day from any other. In fact, absolutely nothing happens here on the 25th. The big day is the 24th. Generally the families get together for the day, some coming from as far as Lima. At 12am (technically the 25th, I know) they have their big Christmas dinner…not a minute before. I spent the day with my host family at the house of my host father’s father. He has 14 brothers and sisters, however only 5 were able to attend. They killed a pig in the morning which we ended up eating throughout the day. Other than eating I really didn’t do much except play hopscotch with my host sisters and their cousins(I won). In the evening I returned to town to eat dinner with the doctors. The food sat in front of us for a good 15 minutes until the clock struck 12am. After hugs and a toast with peach wine were ate our dish of oven baked chicken(a rarity!) and noodles. The big Christmas food item here is called panetón, which is somewhat like fruitcake but much tastier. I’ve had my fair share of panetón in the past few weeks!
It has actually been a fairy eventful few weeks. Besides Christmas, I also attended three graduation ceremonies, for the kindergarten, primary school and secondary school. As I had mentioned in previous entries, I was the godfather for the primary school graduation. This meant that I had to buy gifts, rent the sound equipment and buy/prepare cakes. The last time I was in the city, I spent nearly every waking hour running around buying various items for the ‘promoción’. Instead of buying cakes (which are not quite within the budget of a volunteer!) I baked them with the godmother… We had to bake four of them, or enough for 70 people. That took pretty much a full day in itself!
But anyway, I was a bit nervous for the actual event since I really didn’t have any idea what I was supposed to do. I only knew that I’d have to give a speech…nothing new for the gringo. (It’s been a joke with my dentist friend, Cesar…I always complain that I have to speak at every event, so whenever we’re at a formal event he yells ‘Que hable el gringo!’ or in so many words, ‘make the gringo speak’.) So it was to start at 7:00pm. At 9:00pm the MC started calling to the families through the sounds system to come to the school since half were still missing. Somewhere between 9:30 and 10:00 we finally kicked off the evening. Despite my anxiety I actually had a really good time… after my speech and having to dance the waltz in from of everyone. For the meal they gave me a whole backed chicken, a mountain of rice, and 6 pieces of yucca… I nearly finished the chicken, but didn’t touch the other two plates. After we ate, we danced, and danced, and danced… until 3am. I’ve danced more in the past two weeks than I have in my life.. and the crazy thing is that I’m actually growing to enjoy it. The highlight of the night, however came at the very end. I was just about to head out the gate to head back to my house when one of the mothers came walking up to me. I figured she’d say ‘hey thanks for buying the kids the gifts and such’ which would have been a fairly reasonable way of demonstrating one’s appreciation…. It wasn’t until she was about 5 feet away from me that I realized what she was carrying. She handed me the live rooster and left… I couldn’t say anything but…. ‘gracias’…. What else do ya say? I’d never really practiced my lines for such a situation. So I tried as hard as I could to pretend like it was no big deal… like receiving livestock is an everyday thing… and I walked to my house… wearing a suit and carrying a chicken.
The following night was the secondary schools graduation. That one lasted until 5:30am. Interestingly each graduating senior is awarded a case of beer for making it through 11 years of schooling. Between the graduations, baptism parties, and Christmas celebrations I haven’t had a whole lot of sleep…then again my daily afternoon siestas probably more than make up for it!
Picking back up on the Christmas theme, I was also responsible for buying 60 personal sized panetones for a ‘chocolatada’. It’s an event where all the kids in the town are invited to come eat panetón, as well as other treats, and drink hot chocolate. The hot chocolate here is the real stuff. The cocoa comes straight from the fields/trees. I’ve enjoyed playing with the kids. After they get over the scariness of the big white giant, they actually begin to enjoy playing games with me.
posted by Ryan Nelson | 12:36 PM
1 Comments:
Hi Ryan,
I have just spent the last 40 minutes or so reading your blog. I am so impressed by the way of life you have chosen! You seem to be taking lots of cool risks, especially those late night hikes! Your life is filled with much more and different challenges than mine. Good for you for staying strong, learning about yourself, and becoming part of a unfamiliar community. I am looking forward to reading more of your entries.
with fond memories of freshman seminar, candie, and adams hall 3rd floor, Julia Hyman
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