It's strange to see decorations with winter hats or snow men with a backdrop of palm trees, beaches and people in t-shirts and sandals. Most people here have never seen snow, but everything is commercialized and based on American television culture therefore, Christmas is still associated with snow and the cold, and Santa does live in the North Pole after all. There does appear to be a heavier relgious emphasis on the day as compared to in the U.S., mostly every house has a huge Nativity scene, taking up almost a whole room sometimes. My favorite nativity is outside in a soccer field on the way to San Jose (from my volunteer project). There are life sized mannequins, and the three kings are riding bicycles.. I have to remember to get a picture.
My Christmas was nice. It didn't feel like Christmas for the longest time, not only because of the weather difference, but also because I wasn't surrounded by my friends and family. All of my close friends here have gone home, so it was a little bit depressing being here alone, but thank god I have such an amazing host family! Christmas Eve (Buenanoche.. translation, the good night) I went to my host families Grandmas house. Everyone was sitting outside talking, drinking, dancing salsa, eating.. The typical foods for Christmas here are of course rice and beans, pork, salad, and tamales which are usually corn meal mixed with tomatoes, onions, rice, some meat, and chilies wrapped in a huge leaf and cooked "a la leña" over a flame. They also do a secret santa, but call it "amigo secreto," secret friend. Christmas morning we all woke up late and ate grapes and apples and more tamales. We went to the Grandmas house again for a large lunch.. Christmas is all about the food here! After eating and watching the bull fights on t.v, I came back to my house and skyped with family/ It's was so nice to talk to all of them, we are all truly blessed to have each-other. My grandma and grandpa sang me rudolph the red nosed reindeer, it was so cute! After my skype date I bummed around for a while and my family showed me the presents they got and we just sat around and had some nice conversations. The son, Esteban and a family friend Carlos were going to the parties in the nearby town, Zapote, and asked if I wanted to go. At first I was a bit hesitant but figured why not? Estebans friend drove us there and we parked a few blocks away because it was so crowded. The parties are in a huge parking lot of a stadium (where they have bull fights). Theres music and dancing in the streets, bars, mucho cerveza, tons of fried food, games, rides.. It's like a huge carnival that people come to from all over the country. It was a lot of fun, and definitely a cultural way to spend my first Christmas away from home!
In another aspect, Christmas is celebrated very similarly to the way we celebrate in the U.S., the city is overly crowded with people, the lines in the stores are painstakingly long, and everyone is always in a rush. Being here and working in poor communities has made me realize how ridiculous Christmas has become over the years. Reading facebook statuses like "the worst part about xmas is the traffic at the mall!" makes me cringe a little bit because for some people the worst part about Christmas is being told their father doesn't want them and they have to go live in an orphanage, or not having any money to eat. I am not trying to sound pretentious or like I think I am the next Mother Teresa but the emphasis on shopping and material gift giving is a bit excessive. People stress so much over the perfect gift, how much money to spend, what to wear to a party, or preparing for company to come over and in the end is it really worth it? I like to think my family is pretty modest and of course there are presents(because honestly it wouldn't be Christmas without them), but the best part of the day is the quality time we spend with each other. When all is said and done are we really going to remember what gift we received or gave or for the memories we made? This Christmas my family decided to donate the money they would have spent on gifts for each other to the kids at Rayito. With that money, along with some money from Madeleines family, we bought all of the kids new shoes. I think my dad said it best in his email.. "certainly your kids would benefit from our gift money. We can live without more candles and bathrobes.." And they did. Some of the boys didn't even own a pair of sneakers, now they all have spiderman high tops. Upon recieving them, they were all so grateful, and Madeleine and I overheard some of the older girls saying they didn't want to wear their new shoes yet because they wanted to save them for church...
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