Navidad in Peru

Yeah, I know. What an original title. But thats all I got. This entry is going to attempt to fill you all in on what it was like to be me, over the Christmas holiday here in Peru.

As you all know by now, I work with several churches here in Peru. Three of which I visit every week, and the others on a rotational basis. My Christmas celebration starts on Tuesday the 19th. Tuesday is normally my day off, but one of the churches with a Compassion site that I work with invited me to attend their Christmas party for the kids. They had hired a group who had music, games and prizes for the kids. The festivities were held on a soccer field near the church and all the kids in the neighborhood were invited. I'm bad at estimating, but I would say close to 200 kids. After all the games and music, they had hot chocolate and paneton, a bread like cake with raisins and those little pieces of candied fruit like in fruit cake. I blame Americans for the tradition of hot chocolate, because here, it is way too hot for consuming a hot beverage! Then all the kids in Compassion, went back to the church to await their lunches. I was excited because we were having Pollo a la Brasa, which is kind of like a rotisserie style chicken. But having to feed 150 kids with the food from one restaurant was a bit more difficult than anyone had expected. It ended up taking all afternoon to get everyone their food and I had my delicious lunch at 5 pm.

From there it was off to my second engagement for the evening...a dancing lesson at Primavera. This is the church that my host family attends. Flor, my host mom, teaches Sunday School and her class was involved in the Christmas service in a number of ways, two of which included me. They sang the Spanish version of All in All with my accompaniment, and they danced the Electric Slide, to another "country type" praise song. Tuesday night I met with the kids and Flor to practice the song and teach them the dance steps.

Wednesday was my normal work day at Collique, the same church I went to on Tuesday for their Christmas party and "lunch." There I participated in a gift exchange with the afternoon class. I drew the name of one of the girls and bought her a necklace, some earrings and two bracelets, all for 5 soles...about $1.80. One of the teachers drew my name and had a huge box for me. As I opened it all the girls laughed and smiled as I found another box. Opening it, yet another, and again, yet another. After the final box, I found a nice T-shirt. Of course it was too small, so we went to exchange it. That night was a very special night in the lives of the kids in nivel tres of this project. They were all to receive Bibles. This happens once every 5 years. They invited my up front to assist in handing out the Bibles. I felt very privileged to be a part of such a ceremony.

Thursday after my normal afternoon of guitar lessons, I was off to another Compassion project to participate in their Christmas service. Kori, another YAV, is in my guitar class, and was able to go with me to the service. Earlier in the week, I had taught the words of Away in a Manger to some of the kids I work with. After seeing some of the other kids perform songs and dances, it was time for our little trio to perform. It was actually pretty good. The girls had written out the English the way that they thought they were pronounced and it ended up being great! Too bad the room full of about 150 kids weren't really listening. They were there for one thing, the chocolate and paneton...so two things. We weren't able to stay for the whole thing, but I enjoyed the parts we saw, which was mainly the kids I work with, so the important ones anyway!

Friday was actually a pretty normal day, being my last day of "work" until January 10th.

Then comes Saturday. Most of the churches here had their Christmas services on the 23rd. In fact, I was invited to 4 services that night. But, by default, I am partial to Primavera, so thats where I went. The day started at about 5 when we arrived at the church. There were lots of last minute things to be done. A local organization had donated 100 gifts to be distributed to the kids of the neighborhood, along with enough chocolate and paneton to feed a small army...or 100 kids! We put up a note on the door of the church saying that the kids could come by at 6 to get a ticket for a gift, which were to be handed out at the end of the service. Now, I have described the Peruvian sense of time before, but apparently when you mention "regalos" (gifts) everyone is on time. We had 100 kids in the church by 6:30. The service was supposed to start at 7. And again, the rest of the church is on Peruvian time, so most of the kids and teachers who were supposed to perform the skits and songs were not there. So what did we do? Make the gringo sing! I was prepared to sing Away in a Manger, and ended up adding in the old faithful Open the Eyes for a time filler. My dancing squad was all there, so we also did our little dance, and sang our song. For the first half hour, I felt like I was in a gringo variety hour...coming to a channel near you! The other teachers and kids finally arrived and were able to do the cutest little skits and songs. We even had to cut out some of the adults because the 100+ kids were getting restless after 2 hours of sitting. We then distributed the chocolate, paneton and of course the gifts...all in an orderly fashion of course! It was quite a crazy night, but seeing the joy on the faces of the kids performing and the look in the eyes of the kids as they opened their gifts was worth it all.

Christmas Eve was quite an eventful day as well. It started out with an hour bus ride into Lima to spend some time with the other YAVs and out site coordinators. It was good to see them all and be able to hang out with some familiar friends (and a phone call from mom too!). We even were able to go to a good old Christmas Eve candle lighting service, in English! After the service I had my first of two dinners for the evening. We had turkey and stuffing with all that YAVs at Ruth and Hunter's house. Then after a short rest it was off to my second party of the night. I met up with Eduardo and we went to his aunts house for the traditional meal of turkey at midnight. As the clock struck twelve, we had a toast and all embraced and wished everyone a Feliz Navidad and sat down to our meals. After dinner the elders in the family exchanged words of wisdom, encouragement and tidings of joy, as the rest of us listened intently...or tried to anyway. Then we headed home at the early hour of 3am.

Christmas day was spent with the family of my host mom. We went to her families house for lunch and then participated in a gift exchange. I received another T-shirt...apparently, everyone here is tired of the 5 shirts that I have! After a movie, we came back to Eduardo's parents house, and to my surprise, his brother was watching LOTR: The Two Towers, in English on TV. I gladly joined and napped through most of it. After receiving another call from my mom, and a call from my brother, I was ready to head home and go to bed.

While I didn't have a whole lot of time to miss my family, or to think about what I was missing at home, those feelings did come up as expected. This was my first Christmas away from my family and it really doesn't seem like Christmas without all our traditions. But living in a culture different from my own, and living with people who aren't poor, but not as fortunate as I am, I was able to rediscover what Christmas was about. Not only about the birth of Jesus, but also about bringing family together. Why were Joseph and Mary so far from home for the birth of their son? Because Joseph had to return to the land of his ancestors for a census. He had to go back "where he came from." The families that I was blessed to be a part of this year weren't big on gifts, and no one cared. It was more about having your family, the people that you love, there with you to celebrate. And they all welcomed me in as one of their own.

Merry Christmas to all, and to all a good night!