¡Feliz Navidad!

¡Feliz Navidad a todos!  Merry Christmas, everyone!

As could be expected, Christmas in Bolivia was an adventure.  It had lots of great moments - a beautiful mass with the kids at the orphanage, a lovely dinner with the other volunteers in my program, sunny summer weather, the chance to participate in new Christmas traditions.  It was sad being away from my family and so many things I take for granted in the holiday season: snow, hearing Christmas songs 24-7, the TV marathon of "A Christmas Story," candy canes and candy-cane flavored everything, "A Charlie Brown Christmas" on VHS...  But I'm glad I got to experience a South American Christmas at least once, and who better to spend it with than the lovable girls I work with?

To give you a sense of it, here are a few of the moments and images that stuck out:

The Music

Our band for Christmas mass

Overall, I didn't hear that much Christmas music in Bolivia.  There are plenty of Spanish Christmas carols, but with the radio stations continuing to play the same music as the rest of the year and most shopping taking place in markets instead of malls, you definitely don't get as flooded with Christmas tunes here as you do in the U.S.

On Christmas Eve, though, the girls spent the day blasting a CD of "villancicos," and we got to hear their favorites over and over.  One of them, about the bells of Bethlehem ringing, was pretty catchy (at least the first ten times).  You can listen to it here: https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=DyRFHeNMoXA

I don't have a picture of the Nativity fish, but here's a shot of
the girls dancing in the little pagent they had before dinner.

Their other favorite song was about the nativity fish.  Yep, the fish.  The lyrics of the chorus are "Look how the fish drink in the water.  Look how they drink at seeing God born.  They drink and they drink, and then they drink some more - the fish in the river at seeing God born."  When I picture all the animals that might have been there at Bethlehem - you know, in the desert - I never really imagined fish...but apprently someone did.  There's also a whole verse about Mary combing her hair.  The version of this song that the girls liked best was an intense rock one, which I couldn't find, but if you want to hear another rendition, here it is: https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=L6_nZapQyps

The suit must get awfully
warm down here

And, yes - they do listen to "Feliz Navidad" here.  It's quite popular - both the bilingual version we know and love in the US, as well as a version totally in Spanish. 

The Weather 

It's summer here and, although it rains a lot, the 24th and 25th were beautiful, sunny days, with highs in the 80s.  I didn't need a sweater to go outside (unthinkable for a Minnesotan), and we even took a trip to the park on Christmas afternoon!

The Food

Why, Bolivia?

The most popular Christmas food in Bolivia isn't even Bolivian - it's panettone, a big, round bread with candied fruit which was created in Italy and now is popular in many different countries.  I remember seeing it for sale in Pensacola, but with nowhere near the intensity that it's sold here.  About a month ago, panettones sprung up all over the city: whole booths in markets got rid of their usual products and replaced them with panettones, grocery stores started stocking panettones in every possible inch of shelf space, people set up tables of panettones along busy roads.  I'd estimate there were an average of 5.6 pannetones sold for every one person who lives in Cochabamba.  Finally, I got curious and bought a chocolate one.  It was terrible.  Dry bread that was a little bitter and not at all chocolatey.  I also tried a sample of a traditional one, to see if it was any better.  It wasn't.  Stale, tasteless bread with sickly sweet candied fruit.  I don't get it.

Can you see the foot?  So gross

As far as Christmas meals go, there isn't really one typical dish.  Some families have turkey, some have roasted pork, some have mixed meat stews.  On Christmas Eve at the orphanage, we had cream of chicken foot soup for lunch (yes - with whole chicken feet in it).  For dinner, we had chicken, rice, a potato, a sweet potato, and a little salad.  To me, it seemed pretty similar to what we normally eat (except for the sweet potato - that was a delicious new addition!), but the girls loved it.  For a snack/dessert, we toasted with Sprite mixed with fruit juice and got one lady finger cookie each.  

On Christmas night, my roommates and I hosted a dinner for the four volunteers in our program: one German, one British, one Irish, and one American.  We ended up making lasagna, German red cabbage, green beans, and chocolate cheesecake - kind of eclectic, but really good!

Sponsored Christmas Presents

A Canadian church group knitted these cute hats

In the weeks leading up to Christmas, lots of different organizations came to give the girls presents.  Two were religious organizations dropping off clothes the girls really needed and appreciated.  Never before have I heard kids cheer when they were told someone had given them new socks and underwear for Christmas, but these girls did.  

Most of the visitors, however, were businesses using it as a publicity opportunity.  I had mixed feelings about it.  On the one hand, I'm glad so many people were thinking about the girls, and it is nice that they got presents that they wouldn't have otherwise, and if the business took a few pictures, that doesn't seem to hurt anyone.  On the other hand, some companies seemed to be much more generous, and much less selfishly motivated, than others.  

Even Pepe the dog loved it!

Windsor tea company, for example, was awesome.  They brought hot chocolate for all the girls to drink, and a really nice (and not even a little creepy) clown came did a genuinely funny and enjoyable show for the girls.  They danced, sang, played games, and laughed for at least an hour and a half.  At the end, women dressed as elves passed out bags filled with candy and nice presents (Angry Birds Monopoly, giant pens, or dolls, depending on the girls' ages).  

One of the local colleges was also great - they put on a long show for the kids from four of the Amanecer orphanages.  A host and Mrs. Claus sang and led games, and Santa made an appearance at the end.  (Although, one of the 14-year-old girls, miffed, complained to one of the orphanage workers after, "That wasn't the real Santa!  That was the guy who was playing music at the beginning.  You told me the real Santa would be there!")  At the end, they handed out board games and Frozen Barbies.  

Also, the bank gave some of the girls these
creepy dolls with red light-up ears

A few other companies made brief appearances, passing out toys, giving long speeches about themselves, and taking lots of pictures to put up on their websites.  By far the worst was a local bank.  They showed up with almost a full camera crew - two people with cameras and one with a microphone, to record every moment of their good deed.  They hung up a huge banner advertising their high savings account interest rates, and proceeded to give several long speeches in front of it.  One man lectured about the importance of saving, as his son did with his allowance (not particularly applicable or sensitive advice to girls without families or money).  Then, they started passing out the cheapest, most miserly presents of any group yet: plastic dolls and kitchen sets already breaking in their wrappers.  What was worse was that they ran out of the presents they were planning to hand out and ending up scrambling and giving 17-year-old girls crappy plastic cars.  They told one of them she could give it to a brother, and she burst into tears - this being the first Christmas she wouldn't be able to see her brother.  Of all of the groups, they were by far the most showy and by far the least concerned about the girls (not even having bothered to count their presents beforehand).  

I don't mean to complain about the donations in general - of course, it's a nice thing for people and companies to do in general.  It's just that, by the end, I couldn't help wishing that someone would give the girls something out of genuine love.

Christmas Eve Mass

The girls' side 

After dinner, the Amanecer priest gave a beautiful Christmas vigil mass for the kids at Madre and a nearby boys' home.  The girls were all wearing their nicest clothes - poofy dresses for the little girls, nice blouses for the teenagers.  The boys were wearing what seemed to be presents they'd gotten that day - clean new black sneakers and brightly colored, never-been-washed Angry Bird shirts.

We sang Christmas carols, lit the Advent wreath and a new white candle, got sprinkled with holy water with a fake flower and a plastic pitcher, and blessed the baby Jesus statue before putting him in the manger scene under the tree.  The boys had brought their baby Jesus statue to get it blessed, too - apparently, lots of people here bring their baby Jesuses to Christmas mass to get them blessed before putting them in their home nativity scenes.

The boys' side 

Being able to celebrate the birth of Jesus with all those kids was so nice.  It was so cozy, intimate, and beautiful, from the streamers the girls had hung to the ceiling to the pan flute music to the many many hugs exchanged during the Sign of Peace.