Christmastime is here!

So I recently found out that Christmas is celebrated on the 24th here, which is interesting. Apparently there is a tradition to have dinner at midnight and set off a lot of fireworks. This is how my Christmas in Nicaragua played out…

I left Boaco early and went to Nindiri to meet up with Kellie and check out her place and then we met up with some other volunteers in Masaya. It was so great to see everybody after almost a month. Then, Kellie and I went to San Juan de Oriente to celebrate Christmas with our training town families.

The little girls were so excited to see me—they saw me a block away and ran down the street with open arms. Then we walked to the house holding hands. It was precious.

I hung out and unpacked a little—the little girls stayed right by my side as I made my bed and we played a little. They thought my mosquitero was so fun so we laid on the bed for awhile and giggled. Then they wanted to paint my nails, so Maria Eduarda got out her nail polish and painted them. Now she’s 3, so it was messy, but pretty funny. She wanted to paint them all pink and then put sparkles. After two of my fingers were painted, fingers not just nails, I decided that maybe she should just paint the rest with the clear glittery polish. She went along with it :)




Maria Eduarda and Giselle



Kellie and I walked around the town like old times, without Jess though, and we made sure to visit Jess’ family. They were very happy to see us, but of course sad that Jess wasn’t there. It’s weird being back here, but it feels nice at the same time. I had a little de sha vous yesterday as I was eating lunch and my host mom’s sister walked into the kitchen from the back patio and greeted me as she usually did when I was eating lunch back in training. I had a weird feeling and thought, woah, what if I was back in training again? It makes me feel like I haven’t been gone that long, but still training feels so long ago. It has been a month I guess. Wow, time does really go by quickly!



So the evening, I would say, was a little anti-climatic. My family told me that we would have dinner earlier because it’s weird to wait so long, but they were baking bread for later so I was very excited about that—I love their bread! My host mom gave me gallo pinto, fried cheese, and platanos fritos for dinner (the typical Nica dish here) around 7:30pm, and I thought it was weird that there wasn’t a special dinner, but lunch was really good so I just went with it. We hung out around the house for awhile and they started getting kind of dressy so I thought we were going to do something. I took some pics of my host sister with her daughter by the Christmas tree.

My host mom and her sis were getting ready to leave for mass and then she asked me to make garlic bread, because I had introduced it to them before. So, Kellie and I took over the kitchen and made some garlic butter and added it to their dough to make some garlic rolls. Then we watched a movie until her family was going to start eating…around 11pm. I was so tired because I had stayed up late the night before, so I almost went to bed, but then the bread was ready to eat so I had some delish garlic rolls with more garlic butter on top. I wasn’t even hungry, but who can turn down fresh, hot bread? I watched a show on my computer and then it was midnight and I heard all kinds of fireworks in the streets. My host mom and her sis came to my door and wished me Merry Christmas and then they brought out a bottle of sparkling apple cider. They couldn’t open it, so my host mom said, ask Megan, she’s strong. Haha Well, I was able to open it and we enjoyed some and then watched fireworks outside. We retreated back inside the house because it was really cold out and then sat on the couches watching TV. It felt kind of like New Years: hanging out til midnight, watching fireworks, and then everything is over. Some friends came over and chatted for a little and then I had to say goodnight because it was 2am!

I found out that pretty much nothing goes on here on the 25th so after eating breakfast (a nacatamal and more garlic rolls :) So I’ll be way full the whole day) Kellie and I visited Jess’ family again because her mom was gone yesterday. It was nice hanging out with them—they’re a fun family and so welcoming. Her mom gave us some torta (cake) that she had made last night, which is a traditional cake for Christmas. It was pretty good—had some honey and liquor in it and reminded me of tres leches cake.

Today we’re planning on just hanging out and watching some movies, including A Christmas Story, a classic :) Kellie hasn’t seen it, but it’s a tradition in my family. There are some other volunteers close by, so we might hang out with them. Sounds like it will be a pretty chill day.
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