reflexiones de navidad

songs are up...a little late for christmas, but not too late to enjoy! go here: www.reverbnation.com/raymundoycorina

this wasn´t my first christmas away from home, but definitely my first so far away from friends and family. i would be lying if i said it was the most wonderful time of the year--it has been the most challenging--but it has also been beautiful, in a very strange new way. we started the christmas festivities on the 23rd with a festival de villancicos (christmas carol concert) and it was hilarious. we sang with our english classes, and it´s no wonder they´re studying english and not music performance! despite sounding a little rough, it was really beautiful in a clash-of-cultures sort of way. there aren´t many people in chimbote who speak english, so i think it was (hopefully) entertaining for the audience (despite the entertainment of our disharmony!). todd and i did a little duet of my absolute favorite ¨o holy night¨ and it went really well and just confirmed the fact that i was created to sing on stage. jaja.

after we had a little birthday party for me in our patio. honestly, because my birthday falls on christmas eve, i had forgotten what it was like to have a huge birthday bash with friends! it was so much fun, and true to peruvian tradition, we stayed up until well after sunrise dancing to salsa and cumbias.

on the 24th, the girls took me out to our favorite restaurant downtown, then went for a little paseo to the mar. the malecon (seawall) is my second favorite place in chimbote. so peaceful, and though it reeks of burning fish this time of year, it´s one of the few places to sit and enjoy chimbote. that night, we went to christmas eve mass. a typical christmas mass, although it wasn´t actually much busier than a typical sunday mass, which seemed unusual to me. after mass, we went over to our friend tanya´s house for dinner. at midnight, the ritual here is to place the baby jesus in the manger scene and then, and only then, you´re allowed to hug everyone and say merry christmas. true to peru, we ate dinner around 1 AM, then danced the night away in her living room. it was beautiful to spend the night with an actual family, i feel like i have had so little family interaction here, and to observe the family roles--complete with the typical dad jokes.

on the 25th, we had lunch with the dominican sisters and our incarnate word sisters--basically a gathering of all the religious who are in chimbote, far away from family. it was really nice to eat a u.s. style meal, complete with a cheese plate, mashed potatoes, camote (basically sweet potatoes), and ham! oh, and also nice to spend time with them!

and tonight, just to keep the insane amount of activity going, we´re off to lima to finalize our immigration business. hopefully we won´t run into any problems like we had with the consulate in ecuador...

pictures coming soon!

con amor,
corina