Last night was the first of eight posadas. Las Posadas (The Inns) is a tradition here where the nine days prior to Christmas are celebrated by reenacting the difficulty that Mary and Joseph had finding a place to stay before the birth of Christ. Nine neighborhoods each take their turn hosting an evening where the kiddos sing from door to door asking for a place to stay. The third place they ask accepts, and this is followed by song and then: piñata!
So the village nearby has small parties for the next week or so, and each neighborhood takes a turn to host. It's fun! Although the piñata seems a little dangerous... normally the kid is blindfolded, and the piñata moves up and down as the kid wildly swings a giant heavy stick. Yikes...
And hot food is served along with ponche, or punch made of fruits and spices. Guys walk around with bottles of tequila and other booze to spike the ponche as soon as it is poured. And people from the neighborhood hand out bags of treats. It is nice to get a little holiday-ish stuff in my system. I barely feel like it is December here, let alone near Christmas. With no stores to constantly remind me, I kind of forget. Although, now that power is back on we played Christmas music this morning! Yay!
I really like the village nearby. Around 400 people total, and everyone seems very nice and accepting of the strange gringos who come to their parties. One man stopped us to make sure we would attend the posada his neighborhood will host. Very nice of him!
Today I walked down to Eronga and back which has made me quite tired. I will watch a movie tonight and then zonk out.
Tuesday, December 18, 2007
Las Posadas
Last night was the first of eight posadas. Las Posadas (The Inns) is a tradition here where the nine days prior to Christmas are celebrated by reenacting the difficulty that Mary and Joseph had finding a place to stay before the birth of Christ. Nine neighborhoods each take their turn hosting an evening where the kiddos sing from door to door asking for a place to stay. The third place they ask accepts, and this is followed by song and then: piñata!
So the village nearby has small parties for the next week or so, and each neighborhood takes a turn to host. It's fun! Although the piñata seems a little dangerous... normally the kid is blindfolded, and the piñata moves up and down as the kid wildly swings a giant heavy stick. Yikes...
And hot food is served along with ponche, or punch made of fruits and spices. Guys walk around with bottles of tequila and other booze to spike the ponche as soon as it is poured. And people from the neighborhood hand out bags of treats. It is nice to get a little holiday-ish stuff in my system. I barely feel like it is December here, let alone near Christmas. With no stores to constantly remind me, I kind of forget. Although, now that power is back on we played Christmas music this morning! Yay!
I really like the village nearby. Around 400 people total, and everyone seems very nice and accepting of the strange gringos who come to their parties. One man stopped us to make sure we would attend the posada his neighborhood will host. Very nice of him!
Today I walked down to Eronga and back which has made me quite tired. I will watch a movie tonight and then zonk out.
So the village nearby has small parties for the next week or so, and each neighborhood takes a turn to host. It's fun! Although the piñata seems a little dangerous... normally the kid is blindfolded, and the piñata moves up and down as the kid wildly swings a giant heavy stick. Yikes...
And hot food is served along with ponche, or punch made of fruits and spices. Guys walk around with bottles of tequila and other booze to spike the ponche as soon as it is poured. And people from the neighborhood hand out bags of treats. It is nice to get a little holiday-ish stuff in my system. I barely feel like it is December here, let alone near Christmas. With no stores to constantly remind me, I kind of forget. Although, now that power is back on we played Christmas music this morning! Yay!
I really like the village nearby. Around 400 people total, and everyone seems very nice and accepting of the strange gringos who come to their parties. One man stopped us to make sure we would attend the posada his neighborhood will host. Very nice of him!
Today I walked down to Eronga and back which has made me quite tired. I will watch a movie tonight and then zonk out.
Friday, December 14, 2007
Arg!
Electricity has been out here for about a week.
Not really a problem, except I had been working on a webpage as my main project right now and was almost done (!) but still have to fix a few things and need power to do so... grrrr....
And, at night, it is nice to have light if you want to read without a headlamp, watch a movie, or cook anything after six.
The problem was with the fuse, or so it was thought, but the fuse used for this solar system needs to be specially ordered. And trying to retrofit a cheaper fuse did not work, but did not blow the cheap fuse, just kind of clicked the whole system on, then off. So who knows!
At least I'm getting lots of reading done! Never a bad thing... And I made two cool terrariums a couple of days ago, which I should take pics of and post.
It has been slow here lately, which is a nice change of pace. Two people come today, near my age! Wow!
Not really a problem, except I had been working on a webpage as my main project right now and was almost done (!) but still have to fix a few things and need power to do so... grrrr....
And, at night, it is nice to have light if you want to read without a headlamp, watch a movie, or cook anything after six.
The problem was with the fuse, or so it was thought, but the fuse used for this solar system needs to be specially ordered. And trying to retrofit a cheaper fuse did not work, but did not blow the cheap fuse, just kind of clicked the whole system on, then off. So who knows!
At least I'm getting lots of reading done! Never a bad thing... And I made two cool terrariums a couple of days ago, which I should take pics of and post.
It has been slow here lately, which is a nice change of pace. Two people come today, near my age! Wow!
Thursday, December 6, 2007
Hair
Before I take a shower I usually spend about ten to fifteen minutes yanking through gnarly tangles that have developed over the week of not brushing or paying attention to my insane mane.
Last night it was particularly bad. After laying in the grass for awhile, plus a few days sans shower, plus working outside in wet-ish conditions, my hair was sooooo messed up!
So I gritted my teeth, combed through it, and carefully put it into two neat ponytails.
Then I chopped both the ponytails off.
Now my hair sits in a plastic bag, waiting for my parents to come and take it with them to the States so it can be donated. Locks of Love only requires that the hair be kept in a ponytail or braid of at least 10 inches length. My hair will make a pretty wig! Yay!
The bad part of all of this is that I didn't really pay attention to what I was doing, so my hair looked a little f'ed up. Eh. Maybe I will try to fix it today.
Pictures soon!
Last night it was particularly bad. After laying in the grass for awhile, plus a few days sans shower, plus working outside in wet-ish conditions, my hair was sooooo messed up!
So I gritted my teeth, combed through it, and carefully put it into two neat ponytails.
Then I chopped both the ponytails off.
Now my hair sits in a plastic bag, waiting for my parents to come and take it with them to the States so it can be donated. Locks of Love only requires that the hair be kept in a ponytail or braid of at least 10 inches length. My hair will make a pretty wig! Yay!
The bad part of all of this is that I didn't really pay attention to what I was doing, so my hair looked a little f'ed up. Eh. Maybe I will try to fix it today.
Pictures soon!
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