I was lucky enough to have my Christmas celebration with a local family here. No I didn´t spend it alone :) Mary is the sister of Lorena, who is the Mexican volunteer companies liason here in Ayacucho. A native of Ayacucho, right now she is vacationing in Spain. Here is the tale of my Christmas celebration with her family...without her. Try to keep up with the amount of times that I did something wrong, I promise it will entertain.
Mary was kind enough to extend the invitation to me, although it felt more like a kidnapping. She called me from my house, where she was waiting for me (to my surprise), to bring me to her house for the celebration. It was about 6 pm, I was in the center of town, ironically doing some shopping for her two boys. I had spent a little time with the family before, and knew exactly what the boys had their eyes on for gifts. Or so I thought. I came directly home, where I changed quickly and began our good 3 mile walk accross town to her home. I had the presents wrapped, and I felt ready for the new celebration ahead. Maybe I was ready for an American celebration but not this one. First mistake, I dressed up. I was way overdressed. A bit embarrasing, but not the end of the world. When I arrived, I found out the celebration would not start until midnight. So, unsure of why I am there 6 hours early...I begin to play with her boys which are about 12 years old. Thank god they had video games! I climbed up into their living quarters, on the second story, I took a ladder that was just two tree truncks next to eachother, with some wooden planks accross for steps, some falling off. I felt like I was in a treehouse....but I assure you this is completely normal here.
A quick note on the house. This is the second family home I have been to here, and both have been much dirtier, smaller, and less well appointed than the house of the volnteers that I currently live in and am disgusted by at the same time. Cleanliness is just not a priority, and yes that goes for the resturaunts as well. The 8 of us spent the entire evening in a room no bigger than 10x10. It was the living room, kitchen, dining room, and later...dance floor.
After hours and hours of video games, the kids in and out of sleep. Dinner is finally served at midnight, and not a minute earlier! It was the usual fare, chicken, letuce, and rice. The same thing that is served at just about every resturaunt in Peru, although it usually comes with french fries instead of rice. They call is ´broasted´chicken...its the same type as you would get if you went to KFC and did not order the deep fried chicken...you know the other one...rotisorie, I think? Dinner is served, and the guest is always first here-which is nice. Then the drinks....they look to me and ask me where the wine is. I look around confused, only to later figure out that I was supposed to bring the wine. Oops. I immeadiatly left to buy two bottles down the street, in hopes to right my wrong...it wasn`t enough. The lights were turned off, and we sang. I think it was a Merry Christmas song...but I´m not really sure. Then we ate. Upon finishing, the boys were sent out to the streets where fireworks were out in full force. Imagine if everyone in a dense area like Chicago, on July 4th, conspired to set off their fireworks at eactly 7 pm....this is what the town was like at midnight! It was crazy...and fun.
We re-entered the house, where hot cocoa was waiting with paneton, a local bread specialty made just for christmas. Before paneton though, you were required to dance with a model of bady Jesus from their small model manger in the house. This morphed into some type of cradle the baby and dance type of thing, pass on the statue when your done. I obviously did my best dance...which I think was appreciated.
Afterwards, wine, and coca. Now it is adults only, the kids are asleep. And I begin to realize that there not only is there no time set aside for giving gifts to the kids, but I was the only one who had gifts for the kids, and, I had successfully not given them out. I just kept waiting for there to be, ok-now we give our gifts time....it never came. All the while, the dishes sit dirty around the kitchen, and the table....remember not a priority, but man was it driving me crazy!
Then the coca was passed around by grandma, all participated and I was engaged in my first real conversation about the drug trafficing in this country. I did not bring it up!! But, until now the subject has been beyond hush hush....it has not even been mentioned to me. They do not feel that the leaves they chew are addictive. But I assure you, these are what cocain is made from. Cocain is just many of these leaves, drained of their magic liquids, then dried into powder form...which then makes its way to the states. The farms are in the jungle, where the mafia is the law, and farms with landing strips are carved out of the rain forest. The powder form, from the best I can tell, is like chewing 100 of these leaves at the same time....probably more than you could logistically chew at once....but anyway....enough about drugs.
The wine continued to flow, the music became louder and louder, we danced, bought more wine, danced some more. After the 5 of us adults still up went through 8 bottles of wine I left. I walked in my door at 4:42am.
Not your typical American Christmas...it was interesting...and fun. Even if I made some mistakes along the way, I think they made an attempt to forgive the foreigner, and I tried to make every effort I could to say thank you.
Mary was kind enough to extend the invitation to me, although it felt more like a kidnapping. She called me from my house, where she was waiting for me (to my surprise), to bring me to her house for the celebration. It was about 6 pm, I was in the center of town, ironically doing some shopping for her two boys. I had spent a little time with the family before, and knew exactly what the boys had their eyes on for gifts. Or so I thought. I came directly home, where I changed quickly and began our good 3 mile walk accross town to her home. I had the presents wrapped, and I felt ready for the new celebration ahead. Maybe I was ready for an American celebration but not this one. First mistake, I dressed up. I was way overdressed. A bit embarrasing, but not the end of the world. When I arrived, I found out the celebration would not start until midnight. So, unsure of why I am there 6 hours early...I begin to play with her boys which are about 12 years old. Thank god they had video games! I climbed up into their living quarters, on the second story, I took a ladder that was just two tree truncks next to eachother, with some wooden planks accross for steps, some falling off. I felt like I was in a treehouse....but I assure you this is completely normal here.
A quick note on the house. This is the second family home I have been to here, and both have been much dirtier, smaller, and less well appointed than the house of the volnteers that I currently live in and am disgusted by at the same time. Cleanliness is just not a priority, and yes that goes for the resturaunts as well. The 8 of us spent the entire evening in a room no bigger than 10x10. It was the living room, kitchen, dining room, and later...dance floor.
After hours and hours of video games, the kids in and out of sleep. Dinner is finally served at midnight, and not a minute earlier! It was the usual fare, chicken, letuce, and rice. The same thing that is served at just about every resturaunt in Peru, although it usually comes with french fries instead of rice. They call is ´broasted´chicken...its the same type as you would get if you went to KFC and did not order the deep fried chicken...you know the other one...rotisorie, I think? Dinner is served, and the guest is always first here-which is nice. Then the drinks....they look to me and ask me where the wine is. I look around confused, only to later figure out that I was supposed to bring the wine. Oops. I immeadiatly left to buy two bottles down the street, in hopes to right my wrong...it wasn`t enough. The lights were turned off, and we sang. I think it was a Merry Christmas song...but I´m not really sure. Then we ate. Upon finishing, the boys were sent out to the streets where fireworks were out in full force. Imagine if everyone in a dense area like Chicago, on July 4th, conspired to set off their fireworks at eactly 7 pm....this is what the town was like at midnight! It was crazy...and fun.
We re-entered the house, where hot cocoa was waiting with paneton, a local bread specialty made just for christmas. Before paneton though, you were required to dance with a model of bady Jesus from their small model manger in the house. This morphed into some type of cradle the baby and dance type of thing, pass on the statue when your done. I obviously did my best dance...which I think was appreciated.
Afterwards, wine, and coca. Now it is adults only, the kids are asleep. And I begin to realize that there not only is there no time set aside for giving gifts to the kids, but I was the only one who had gifts for the kids, and, I had successfully not given them out. I just kept waiting for there to be, ok-now we give our gifts time....it never came. All the while, the dishes sit dirty around the kitchen, and the table....remember not a priority, but man was it driving me crazy!
Then the coca was passed around by grandma, all participated and I was engaged in my first real conversation about the drug trafficing in this country. I did not bring it up!! But, until now the subject has been beyond hush hush....it has not even been mentioned to me. They do not feel that the leaves they chew are addictive. But I assure you, these are what cocain is made from. Cocain is just many of these leaves, drained of their magic liquids, then dried into powder form...which then makes its way to the states. The farms are in the jungle, where the mafia is the law, and farms with landing strips are carved out of the rain forest. The powder form, from the best I can tell, is like chewing 100 of these leaves at the same time....probably more than you could logistically chew at once....but anyway....enough about drugs.
The wine continued to flow, the music became louder and louder, we danced, bought more wine, danced some more. After the 5 of us adults still up went through 8 bottles of wine I left. I walked in my door at 4:42am.
Not your typical American Christmas...it was interesting...and fun. Even if I made some mistakes along the way, I think they made an attempt to forgive the foreigner, and I tried to make every effort I could to say thank you.
2 comments:
kevin - i drank coca tea in cusco to help with the altitude sickness (the peruvians swear by it) and it tasted like dirty water. i did not chew the leaves though (who wants to chew leaves?) - have you tried it?
Yeah, my understanding is that the tea is sort of a milder version of the straight leaves. Its the same concept...its like a strong dose of caffiene, it makes you feel better no matter what! Isn´t that why the whole world is addicted to coffee and Coca-cola??
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