Christmas in Paraguay is nothing like Christmas in the States. First of all it is hot here. I mean that I have sweat dripping down my face when I walk into town to go to church. They also eat an insane amount of fruit during Christmas, which is awesome! They have mango trees everywhere because they provide so much shade. The upside of this is all of the mangos just waiting to be eaten, the downside is that when mangos fall from the tree they fall hard and I am terrified of getting hit in the head by a mango. However, anytime I explain this fear to Paraguayans they laugh and think it is funny.
The week before Christmas I went and did what I referred to as “praying for Christmas” just about every day. It was a reso that lasted about an hour and involved singing, praying, and talking. I also somehow got recruited to ‘help’ the kids of the community put a play of the nativity scene. This means I basically sat for an hour and pretended to understand what was happening, don’t get me wrong I know the story but I have no idea what 10 little Guarani speakers are saying and the younger children tend to speak mainly Guarani. On Friday the kids preformed and it wasn’t as awful as I expected. After we sang and prayed and then had sort of an outdoor picnic.
On Christmas Eve I spent the day at my contacts house, my current homestay. She has 11 children and I think 8 of them showed up with some grandchildren and a boyfriend or two. Most of the day was focused around cooking and I tried to help out as much as they would allow. We ended up cooking 6 kilos of cow for dinner and it was set out on the table at 8pm. The power also went out around 2 pm so we were hanging out by candlelight. We then sat around awkwardly staring at the food and talking about how hungry we were. Finally around 9:30 one of my sisters mentioned that we would be eating at 10. I have no idea why they picked 10. Finally 10 rolls around and we get to eat. Then we sit back down and wait. This time we are waiting for 12. At 11:40 we stand up and start praying in front of the ‘pescebre’. Then the big moment, midnight rolls around! It was literally the most anticlimactic moment ever. We smiled at each other and kissed everyone on the cheek saying ‘feliz navidad’. Then that was it. I went to bed around 1, which is about 4 hours past when I normally go to bed.
On Christmas Day nothing special seemed to happen. They exchange gifts in January so we had a big lunch, this time it was a sort of pig bbq that was really good. We drank some clerico, which is essential less strong sangria with a lot more fruit. Then we had some chocolate and cookies with the neighborhood kids and that was really it.
Christmas in Paraguay was pretty much everything other volunteers had told me it would be: awkward. You are away from home and feel a little bit left out and then you are an outsider in a celebration that is completely different from everything you are accustomed to. I sat around with 6 of the daughters and listened to them gossip and laugh and realized I really wanted to be home with my sisters and parents. Luckily Christmas has passed and it is back to everyday life here in Paraguay! Although in January there will be the gift exchange, so we will see how that goes! I hope you guys all had a great Christmas and I promise I am having an awesome time in Paraguay!
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