Many of you are probably wondering how the holidays went for me here in Peru, without snow, without family, without the traditional movies, or mom’s goodies. Well frankly, it was quite different but still amazing. I celebrated with my “family” here, caught a glimpse of the Madagascar Christmas movie, and mom even sent me her traditional Christmas mix. I was also blessed to experience the Peruvian traditions.
At the beginning of December, we had a “chocolatada” for the children. This consisted of having music, playing lots of games, and in the end distributing hot chocolate and pannetone (traditional cake/bread thing). Yes, even in the 80 degree heat everyone drinks hot chocolate, which happens to be a little bit better than Swiss Miss in my opinion.
Christmas Eve and Christmas day were quite different for me. Christmas Eve, we had a pretty “normal” day until after Vespers at 6. Afterwards, we began to cook a large dinner for after Mass. Here, the tradition is to go to Mass and then eat dinner at 12midnight on the dot. We varied a little from the tradition and began to eat around 11. At midnight, everyone started to light off fireworks all over the city. We live on a hill so we were able to see the fireworks from the street, so we ran outside to watch. We greeted some of our friends that were outside with hugs and others passed by the house to wish us a Merry Christmas. Afterwards, we went back inside to continue eating dinner, which consisted of chicken, rice, yucca, salad, refreshments, and brownie a la mode for dessert. After our friends left around 2am, we revealed our secret Santas, shared some more sweets and finally went to bed around 3ish. Ps-from my secret Santa, I received holy medals of JP2, OLOG, and Saint Martin de Porres/ St. Blaise. WIN.
Christmas day, we went to Pachacutec, a little town about an hour and a half away to visit the two families we visit there every month. The visits were a little more special than normal since it was Christmas and we gave the kiddos gifts. Also, since Edgardo and Flo were in the middle of their saying their goodbyes, it was nice to share this experience with them but also it was beautiful to witness just how much these two friendships have touched each one of them and I got a little excited to think about how the friendship is already developing between myself and the families. We drank some more hot chocolate, caught a little bit of the Madagascar Christmas movie, and headed home in the evening.
Now, I realize that my birthday is not an official holiday, but its in the season so why not share what that was like?!
The Tuesday before my birthday, we packed up and headed to the beach! Now, ever since Charlotte (the American that is on mission in Barrios Altos) told me we could go to the beach for my birthday, I was set on it. We went to the “Beach of Silence” and had a little picnic before some of us jumped into the big blue ocean. The picnic was awesome! From packages from mom and dad, we had PB&J so I got to eat a PB&J sandwhich, cheeto type things that we bought, brownies that Flo made, and we shared a beer too (they’re not like the bottle back home, they are larger and meant to be shared). Afterwards, Flo, Edgardo, Patrick and myself all braved the cold water and went swimming. The waves were a little violent and tricky at times, but nonetheless, we all still had a good time. While I was taking a break on the beach, enjoying some matté….. WE SAW WHALES!!!! Seriously, could my birthday celebration have one any better?? Oh yea, on top of all of this, the people behind us were playing American music all day, so I got to hear some Nelly, Pearl Jam and lots of others too! The best part of my birthday...getting to start the day off with Mass, in my house on the actual day of my birthday. WIN!
Now this brings us to New Years. Again, a normal day of visits and permanencia and then mass at night. After mass, we invited some friends for yet some more hot chocolate and pannettone before preparing for the main event of the night…climbing up to the cross that overlooks La Ensenada. A few of our friends joined us for the climb that took about a good hour to do. I didn’t die from asthma, thankfully, and was one of the first ones to arrive! From the cross, we could see the entire city! Again, at midnight, everyone started lighting off fireworks so we were entertained by the entire city for a good half hour. After this half hour, it was difficult to continue to see the fireworks because the whole city was covered in smoke. At around 1230/1245, we started to make our way back down to the house. This proved to be a little more tricky seeing as how gravity was not my friend a few times and I may have slipped once or twice…oops!
I hope you all had a blessed Christmas and a safe New Year and I look forward to returning to a white Christmas, a cold birthday, and a New Year with my friends in 2012.
Love,
Kari
