Año Nuevo 2009

On Christmas and in the days following, I enjoyed a little rest and a few phone conversations with my family, all gathered together at my folks´ place in Redding, CA. Other activities in for the final days of December included finalizing and posting the music that I mentioned in my last entry (see also music link at right), a year end get-together and evaluation with JUMIFRA (Franciscan Missionary Youth, our parish youth council), a soccer game at the local stadium, preliminary planning for summer youth activities and our next cycle of English classes, a lot of singing with the choir, and preparations for the arrival of houseguests (Julie´s sister Clare and Jane´s friends Jenn and Robert). Just before New Years the girls traveled to Lima to do immigration paperwork and meet their visitors, returning on the 30th in time to prepare for a New Years Eve party that JUMIFRA had asked to hold in our back patio.

Our celebration of the New Year 2009 was unique and memorable – something I know I´ll remember fondly wherever I happen to be welcoming 2010. On the 31st, a team of friends and youth council members came by in the morning to begin cleaning and decorating for the evening – sweeping, washing, blowing up and hanging balloons and ´crepe paper´ (TP), making a sign, etc (parties aren´t as hard when others help you clean the house ). Due to heat and the need to buy a few more supplies, we agreed to gather again at 5:00 pm to finish the job. In the early afternoon after my mostly unsuccessful attempt build up strength by taking a nap, our friend Alex showed up with a load of food, which Julie and he had bought earlier at the market, in order to cook a fancy dinner for us that we would share later – he and his family run a small restaurant out of their home. [The New Years celebration here takes a distinct from that in the US, where parties begin at 8:00 or so and the climax is more or less at 12:00 midnight. In Peru, families eat wait until near midnight to hold their dinner – at the strike of twelve, people flow into the street to burn life size dolls, set off firecrackers and give new years´ hugs. Only after this, at 1:00 am or so, do people head out to the jam-packed (so I hear) discotecas or other parties, staying out until daylight oftentimes]. So Juan, Lenin and I took charge of hanging the rest of the balloons and spraying down the patio, while Alex and the girls worked away in the kitchen, breaking only temporarily to buy a replacement gas canister from our friend and English student Anthony, who runs a small store from his house down the street.

I left the preparations part way through, a busy night of singing ahead of me. First, our choir had a contract to sing at a 7:00 pm wedding (two parties with one expense). Next, I joined members of the three parish choirs to rehearse for the 9:00 pm New Years´ Mass. The fact that the church would be nearly full on New Years´ Eve at 9:00 pm still surprises me, but I guess if your night will last until sunrise the next day then 9:00 pm is like the morning . At any rate, I really enjoyed singing in the new year in such a fashion, returning quickly after Mass to help at home. Alex, Yuri, Juan Carlos, Lenin and Nelly joined us four and our three guests for the New Years´ dinner – they gave up spending the moment with their families to help us have a festive holiday away from home (and to have a great meal). Though very hungry, we held off on the food until midnight, at which time we went out into the street, gave the new years´ abrazo all round, and were one by one doused with sticky glitter by Lenin and Nelly – we all shone the rest of the night. Up and down our street, Avenida Perú, life-sized dolls made of old clothes and sawdust – and doused with kerosene – burned brightly, giving a strange TV-news war-zone shot feel to the whole thing. The hiss and bang of fireworks provided background for numerous photos and a genuinely beautiful, heartening, (though slightly bizarre) moment of friendship and joy. Soon enough, hunger drew us inside to the waiting dinner of roast stuffed chicken, mashed potatoes, Russian (potato-beet) salad, champaigne, and (of course) panetón.

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The arrival of the finishing touches to the sound system for the night (speakers from Yuri, CD player from Ginno, amplifier borrowed for the occasion by Anthony) and the first guests at 1:00-1:30 left us no time for doing dishes (a mess the next day). After some early-arrivers helped us out by going home to bring back music CDs, the party was off and running – or dancing, I should say. By 2:30 most guests had arrived, I estimate 60-70 or so in all, youth from various groups within the parish – and they all stayed until at least 5:00, dancing most of the time (with the exception of everyone going out into the street to watch a short fire-breathing/spinning exhibition by a friend of Courtney and Julie). With the help of some extra caffeine I made it until 6:00 am, when it was already starting to get light, and the last stragglers didn´t say good-bye until 7:30. A photo as folks just started to arrive:




Though a recuperating sleep would have been nice, instead a band of us shook off the fatigue and headed to the beach (another common New Years custom) at about 9:30 am, alternatingly swimming at taking short naps on the sand. Arriving back at the house at 5:00 pm, I had just one more commitment – singing at the New Years Day 7:00 pm mass with a combined choir before coming home and falling into profound sleep. Happy New Year everyone!

Navidad Chimbotana...la segunda

I´m back – the IW sisters have recently handed down to us an older computer of theirs that serves well in our house for writing blogs, etc, that can be saved and transferred later to my blog. So, I write these next blog entries from the relative comfort of our own house, where we do our best in the afternoon to lay low and stay inside, away from the strong afternoon heat of full summer.

My celebration of Christmas this year was very distinct from that of 2007, in many ways I was able to enter more fully, I felt, into the rites, festivities, and traditions. In general, I have noticed a big change in my perspective as I experience life here the second time around – for example this January I noticed clearly that the funk of homesickness and feeling out of place that I struggled with last year was not to be found. Below, you will see that even with all the new traditions we encounter, we still found time to bake and decorate Christmas cookies.
At Christmas, instead of just surviving, I participated much more – as an example, I learned a number of Peruvian Christmas carols, both through my singing in the choir and on the guitar from friends Roger and others. I took part, through our much-more-involved youth council, in the actual planning and orchestration of events – a children´s Christmas party, first-ever Christmas Carol festival in the parish, and a Christmas play at Christmas Eve mass – that left great memories for myself and others in the parish. Children´s Christmas parties here are called chocolatadas, because – copying their cold weather counterparts in North America – they serve hot chocolate, even though the heat has already made its first inroads. In addition to hot chocolate, a chocolatada necessarily includes panetón (see previous blog entry), songs and choreographed dances (our parish youth dance group took this on), games and contests, and giving presents. Coordinators of our eight parish neighborhoods invited specific families whom they felt were of the most need, and the youth council decorated the parish hall with lights, balloons, paper-cutout snowflakes  and a large Nativity Scene of styrofoam cutouts (picture below).



Taking advantage of the decorations, we had planned a first-ever Christmas music festival for the evening, following the afternoon chocolatata. Various groups within the parish prepared acts, including a first-communion children´s choir, the two youth/young adult choirs, a couple solo singer/guitarists, our English class (classics in English!), and a composite ´all-star´ group from the two choirs. All in all, December 23 was a beautiful night of music and fellowship, the black styrofoam silhouettes of Mary/Gabriel, the shepherds, and Mary/Joseph/donkey that the youth council had created at our house adorning the candlelit walls. Unfortunately, I accidentally deleted photos of these decorations before saving them – but I did record several of the songs from that night on a new digital recorder, a Christmas/birthday gift from my brother Ryan. As a sidenote, several of these songs, plus some English Christmas carols that my housemate Courtney and I recorded, can be accessed for your listening pleasure at www.reverbnation.com/raymundoycorina. I performed in two groups that night, singing with my choir Trovadores del Evangelio (Troubadors of the Gospel) and accompanying Julie, Jane, Courtney and our English students on guitar (see photo of us on stage below).


Not taking much of a break following the chocolatada and music festival, at 9:00 mass on the 24th a group of 20 of the Confirmation youth put on a Christmas play in the church – a combo of the classic Nativity story and a telling of how St. Francis initiated the tradition of Nativity Scenes by orchestrating the first ´live´ nativity scene in the 13th century. We lacked a couple actors to fill all roles, so I stepped in as Friar León, companion of St. Francis. Unknown to all of us, the priests envisioned the entire cast remaining up front, as a living nativity scene, during the entire mass. Sitting on the floor in bare feet and my Franciscan robe, surrounded by teenage Mary and Joseph, angels, squirrelly young shepherds, etc – a Christmas Eve memory that I will not soon forget.

Though utterly exhausted due to the event, rehearsal, and preparation schedule of the previous days, mass here marks just the beginning of the Christmas celebration, which for all takes place on the 24th and not on the 25th. Tania, a friend of ours from the parish, invited the four of us foreigners to her home for Christmas Eve, la Noche Buena. Tradition is to, at midnight, place the baby Jesus in the Nativity Scene, give hugs all around, and open presents (they had one or two for each person, including one for each of us). Also at midnight, some folks set off fireworks in the street. Finally, a Christmas dinner is served: chicken (or turkey), potatoes, and of course panetón and hot chocolate. Following dinner, the prerequisite for any party – music and dancing. I have only foggy memories of the next couple hours, fighting doggedly to avoid falling into a deep slumber on the couch. Mercifully, we left ´early´ and I was in bed by 3:30 am or so. Christmas itself was low-key – we had a lunch invitation at the home of a community of Dominican sisters here, the same place I shared Thanksgiving with the year before with Emily and Nicole. Several other displaced norteamericanos were also present, as were our own IW sisters for a pleasant outside lunch of chicken, ham, yams, mashed potatoes, salad, and ´pumpkin´ pie. Finally, we four held our gift exchange at home around our two-foot artificial tree and under our hanging snowflake decorations and then laid down for a well-deserved rest.