Feliz Navidad!

Merry Christmas everyone. Hope everyone enjoyed Christmas with your families, and have a safe and happy new years as well!

Yes, of course, this time is pretty hard for me, being a thousand miles away from my family and friends, and a "world apart", spending my first christmas in 26 years away from them. But at the same time, I'm glad I got to spend Christmas in a developing country. Waking up to no gifts under the christmas tree, with a family that is just as happy that it is Christmas anyway, was a very humbling experience for me. It really didn't feel like Christmas. No presents, No snow, and noone saying "Merry Christmas". My host cousin actually laughed at me when I said "Feliz Navidad" to someone.

So Christmas in El Salvador consists of many fireworks (the annoying kind that kids throw close to each other and make obnoxiously annoying sounds), and eating lots of food! They actually celebrate Christmas on the 24th here. Christmas is the day where half the roosters and chickens throughout El Salvador are killed. My 5 year old sister is chasing one around the house as I'm writing this. My host family liked to play the game.. "Let's hand the rooster and the knife to the gringa and see what she does" I couldn't kill the thing - and am actually ashamed to admit this, but the thought did cross my mind. I did help in pulling out its feathers, cutting off the feet, pulling out the heart, and getting it ready to cook. That itself was enough of an experience for me. My host mom cried during the killing of the rooster, because she loved the singing of that particular rooster. The people here are shocked when I tell them I wear earplugs because I can't stand the sound of the roosters. "What?! Their singing is so beautiful and calming." So we killed 3 roosters in all, and made a million tamales.

The next day we walked 3 hours to take a bath in the river. It's a tradition that Salvadorians do the day after Christmas, and New Years day as well. Now when I say 'we walked' I really mean we spent half of the walk bushwhacking our way through the forest. And bushwhacking here is a very painful and exhausting experience. Half the plants and trees are full of pines and spiky things. So between everyone in my host family, we had many cuts, some blood, ripped clothing, some laughter, lots of sweat, some tears, and another great bonding experience for all. I'm in some pain today, cause I carried my best friends 2 year old son on my shoulders for half the walk. At the river, we killed 2 more roosters, caught some fish from the river, and had another delicious meal. Today I'm going to my friend Amy's community for a rodeo, which is in her front yard. Yay for cultural experiences :)