- The whole town was basically "en la fiesta" starting Christmas Eve afternoon through Boxing Day. Kids with fireworks, men with beers, women handing out plates of food, radios blaring full blast from all sides and everyone wearing their best dress and Christmas smiles.
- We marveled at how low the campo Christmas carbon footprint is. No planes, trains and automobiles are needed to bring distant family members together because, bueno, todos son vecinos...they're all neighbors! There were few presents and even fewer Christmas lights, but no one missed them at all.
- We broke down and splurged on some junk food such as Kraft Parmesan cheese, Bertolli Alfredo sauce in a jar, chips and salsa, Smartfood popcorn as well as some powdered and brown sugars we hope to turn into an apple crisp. All have been wonderful purchases!
- A Christmas Eve morning hike took us past a tree full of white-chested, little monkeys up in a pifa palm. When they sensed our approach they abandoned ship flailing and screeching into the jungle, but taking enough time to give us a good stare down...and us, them.
- The jungle heat seemed to be taking the day off too because Christmas was fresh and breezy with a beautiful, clear sky. You can't really wrap that up and it doesn't fit under the tree, but boy everyone sure appreciated it!
- Anacleto invited us up to his house Christmas afternoon to share a delicious meal. We talked and talked. It feels good to be thought of and cared for by someone so wise and upstanding. Our respect for Cleto grows daily!
- One of our dear campesino friends Clemente, a little bit tipsy, spent a solid fifteen minutes telling us how good-looking we are are and how strange it was that God decided to send such handsome people to San Juanito. We told him he was good-looking too and a great friend. He was waiting for his god-daughter's family to bring him el mulo de la gallina, which after great hilarity, we learned to be a cut of chicken including the breast and wing...we think.
- We dressed up and went to the "midnight mass," which has evolved here to the "8:45 pm birth of Jesus play featuring real babies!" This is an entertaining event in the great hall of the church where the youngest, within reason, baby of the town gets to be baby Jesus and the second youngest stars as Juan (John the Baptist and prophet/buen amigo of Jesus). Juan was extra big this year and it took both Isabel and Zacharius, every character is played by a child from town, to hold him up.
- All of our calls home went through and we got to talk to our families and know they were all doing great back home in the cold!
Yes indeedy, it is a different take on Christmas out here, but one we love a lot. We have done a lot of things out here that we have never done before on Christmas and will likely not do again...or maybe we will because after all, traditions are what you make them to be!
Happy Holidays,
Alex and Lauren
Good morning, how are you?
ReplyDeleteMy name is Emilio, I am a Spanish boy and I live in a town near to Madrid. I am a very interested person in knowing things so different as the culture, the way of life of the inhabitants of our planet, the fauna, the flora, and the landscapes of all the countries of the world etc. in summary, I am a person that enjoys traveling, learning and respecting people's diversity from all over the world.
I would love to travel and meet in person all the aspects above mentioned, but unfortunately as this is very expensive and my purchasing power is quite small, so I devised a way to travel with the imagination in every corner of our planet. A few years ago I started a collection of used stamps because trough them, you can see pictures about fauna, flora, monuments, landscapes etc. from all the countries. As every day is more and more difficult to get stamps, some years ago I started a new collection in order to get traditional letters addressed to me in which my goal was to get at least 1 letter from each country in the world. This modest goal is feasible to reach in the most part of countries, but unfortunately, it is impossible to achieve in other various territories for several reasons, either because they are very small countries with very few population, either because they are countries at war, either because they are countries with extreme poverty or because for whatever reason the postal system is not functioning properly.
For all this, I would ask you one small favor:
Would you be so kind as to send me a letter by traditional mail from Panama? I understand perfectly that you think that your blog is not the appropriate place to ask this, and even, is very probably that you ignore my letter, but I would call your attention to the difficulty involved in getting a letter from that country, and also I don’t know anyone neither where to write in Panama in order to increase my collection. a letter for me is like a little souvenir, like if I have had visited that territory with my imagination and at same time, the arrival of the letters from a country is a sign of peace and normality and an original way to promote a country in the world. My postal address is the following one:
Emilio Fernandez Esteban
Avenida Juan de la Cierva, 44
28902 Getafe (Madrid)
Spain
If you wish, you can visit my blog www.cartasenmibuzon.blogspot.com where you can see the pictures of all the letters that I have received from whole World.
Finally, I would like to thank the attention given to this letter, and whether you can help me or not, I send my best wishes for peace, health and happiness for you, your family and all your dear beings.
Yours Sincerely
Emilio Fernandez