Feliz Navidad! Christmas in Guate

Merry Christmas from Guatemala!

As you may remember from previous blog posts, I had a wonderful experience with my Guatemalan host family during my first 2 months of SALT, and they invited me to spend Christmas and New Years with them. Although Christmas in Guate is a lot different than Christmas back home, and I was missing snow and all my family and friends and Christmas traditions back home, I wasn’t homesick, thanks to the wonderful hospitality of the Kaehler family! I had a really amazing Christmas, and much better than I was expecting, considering only a couple weeks ago I had been feeling pretty homesick for a Canadian Christmas.

Now, how to describe a Guatemalan Christmas…

First of all, Christmas in Guatemala (and El Salvador too) is just celebrated for one day, unlike back home where we have numerous dinners and get-togethers with family and friends throughout the whole holiday season. Here they just celebrate la Noche Buena (Christmas Eve). Christmas day is just a day to rest, because their Christmas Eve celebrations with family go into the early hours of Christmas morning. So here is what Christmas 2011 looked like for me.

My host mom spent the days of the 23^rd and the 24^th busy in the kitchen making tons of food. The main traditional Guatemalan Christmas food is tamales, a delicious dish made of corn and rice. They are filled with pork, peppers, raisins, olives and a red tomato sauce with lots of yummy Guatemalan spices. Each individual “tamal” is wrapped up separately in banana leaves and tied up with a dried weed, and then cooked for at least 8 hours. My host mom made 110 of these – a lot of work!! She also made traditional Guatemalan punch, a fruit drink with fresh pineapples, apples and papayas, as well as spices, served hot. Another big part of Guatemalan Christmas are firecrackers. Although the big show is at midnight on Christmas Eve, all day and night on the 24^th and 25^th you could hear firecrackers and fireworks going off in the distance.

Christmas Eve is a big deal, so everyone gets dressed up for the evening. At around 7:00, aunts, uncles and cousins started arriving at our house, and the girl cousins and aunts got dressed up in their new clothes, and started doing their hair and makeup together. The extended Kaehler family (the family of my host dad) consists of 2 uncles, 5 aunts, 13 cousins (between the ages of 2 and 30), 2 boyfriends/fiancés, Diego’s son Josúe, and me, their Gringa/Canadian cousin! It was a full house! The evening consisted of lots of noise, laughter, and tons of food! The youngest Kaehler cousin, 2 year old Ceci, entertained the whole family with some Christmas dancing and singing, which was hilarious and super cute! The cousins had bought tons of different kinds of firecrackers, so we set some off before midnight, to test them out. I even got to set a few off, but only the smaller ones – my host brothers didn’t trust me with the bigger ones! Then at around 10:00 all the cousins and aunts and uncles left, because even though it had been quite the party and there was tons of food still left, this wasn’t the main event. We were invited to eat Christmas Dinner at 1 in the morning (crazy, eh??) at my host dad's sister's house. So everyone went home for a bit to rest up, before the real Christmas began, and to open their presents. When midnight came around, we all went outside to set off the rest of the firecrackers. It was crazy and very loud – there were lights and noises coming from every single direction in the streets, but it was a lot of fun, and there were some bigger fireworks shows that we could see off in the distance. Once the fireworks were done, and every family member and neighbour had given/received a Christmas hug and greeting, we went inside to open the Christmas presents. Most of the presents were for Josúe, Diego’s 7 year old son. But there were even 2 presents under the tree for me, which I wasn’t expecting! Then at aroud 12:30, once the presents were open, we headed to another part of the city to (finally!!) enjoy Christmas dinner with the extended Kaehler family again. Instead of all sitting down at the same time, it was kind of like eat whenever you are hungry. We had more of the Christmas punch, and our Christmas dinner consisted of pork with a delicious sauce, rice mixed with some vegetables and cream cheese (soooo yummy!!!) and a salad. There was more exchanging of gifts, mostly for the younger cousins, and then people just hung around in the living room, half of us talking, half of us sleeping! At 3 am we left to go back home, and by 4 am Christmas morning I was fast asleep.

Christmas Day I slept in until noon, and then had a lazy afternoon in my pyjamas. Some of the cousins had slept over at our house, so we played a bit of Dutch Blitz, which has become a popular card game in the Kaehler household. At about 4 pm, another aunt, uncle and cousin came over, and we had a “Christmas lunch” that my host mom had prepared. I’m not sure if this is something they do every year for Christmas Day, or if it was just because it was a Sunday and no one had to work. Plus my host mom loves cooking for others and is an amazing cook. Either way, it was a delicious meal, and nice to spend time with some of the extended family once more. We had pork again, this time with gravy, delicious mashed potatoes and veggies. And also some Egg Nog that I had bought from the grocery store, and was super excited about! Then once it got dark, the cousins and my host dad lit up some more firecrackers out in the street (along with the rest of Guatemala).

And that in a nutshell was my Guatemalan Christmas; filled with tons of delicious food but most importantly wonderful people, who have made me feel like another daughter/sister/niece/cousin in the family, even though I’m not even living in Guatemala anymore. It was a very special Christmas that I will never forget!

my Guatemalan host nephew Josue, opening his Christmas presents

my Guatemalan host sisters Karla and Carolina, all dressed up for the Christmas Eve festivities

Setting off firecrackers at midnight on Christmas Eve!
I was a little bit nervous at first, but it was actually a lot of fun. And most importantly, no one got hurt!!

November in a Nutshell

It's been brought to my attention that tomorrow is the first day of December, and that it's been a while since I've updated my blog! So here is my attempt to quickly summarize my past month in El Salvador.

First thing's first - I finally have a host family! Although I was beginning to get into a routine in my previous home, and enjoying the quietness and independence of living with 2 nuns (not the typical SALTer experience, I would imagine!), I was happy to move in with a more "typical" host family, and have more people around at home to practice my Spanish with. 3 weeks ago I moved in with Ana Mirian, the director of ANADES (the organization I work for here in El Salvador), and her family. The household consists of Ana Mirian's mother Hilda (who owns the house, which was built by her late husband), Ana Mirian's husband Miguel, and their 3 children Karla, Miguel (or Miguelito) and Belén.
Miguel works long shifts at the hospital (he's a doctor, I think!) and Ana Mirian is always very busy with ANADES work or events, so they are not home too often. I interact mostly with Hilda, the grandma, who has been very sweet and welcoming to me. She is home most of the time, looking after the 2 youngest kids (since right now they are on summer vacation) and doing most of the cooking and cleaning in the house. Miguel (the son) and Belén (the daughter) are 8 year old twins - they were super excited to welcome me as a new member of their family, and are always giving me hugs and talking my ear off every chance they get. They're super cute, but luckily when they get to be a bit much, my bedroom is located upstairs, so I can just go up to my room and shut the door when I need a break! My other host sister Karla turned 22 last week. She is also very nice, but super busy so I don't see her very often either. She studies at the university during the day, and then on evenings and weekends works at Starbucks. They also have a pet turtle, which I discovered rather surprisingly the other day in the backyard/patio area!



host siblings from left to right, Belén, Karla, and Miguel


My work at the pre-school, Centro Hogar, is going very well. It is almost always the highlight of my day, because the kids are just so adorable and fun to be around. The school year in El Salvador is different then back home. Here it goes from January to November, with summer holidays in December for the kids. This means that Friday is the last day of classes at our school and on Saturday we will have "la clausura" or the closing program, for the parents. I will give a better summary of my work here at Centro Hogar and ANADES next week, once the school year is over, and I have more time to reflect on it.

Overall, the month of November has been a good one. As I get to know the city of San Salvador better, and as my relationship with my host family and my co-workers at ANADES grows, I am beginning to feel more at home here. I celebrated my 24th birthday a week and a half ago, and although I was a bit homesick that day, this past week I enjoyed 3 different birthday cakes/celebrations (a record for me, as far as I remember!) with my 3 different families here in Central America - my Guate host family, my MCC "family", and my El Salvador host family, which definitely lifted up my spirits and cured my homesickness and loneliness I had been experiencing! I spent 5 days in Guate, where we celebrated American Thanksgiving with the MCC team or "family" in the city, had our MCC team Annual Meeting in beautiful Santiago Atitlan, and I also had a chance to visit my Guate host family! It was definitely the highlight of the month for me! Also, just getting out of El Salvador for a little while and having more time to talk with my fellow MCCers, helped me reflect upon all the blessings I have been experiencing in El Salvador and helped me have a more positive attitude about everything that's been going on the past couple months.

Thank you to everyone who has sent me emails this past month - although I haven't had time to respond, they have been greatly appreciated!

Lastly, here are some pictures from my 3 wonderful birthday celebrations :)

Birthday celebration #1 - delicious apple pie, with my Guate host family

Birthday Cake # 2, in Santiago Atitlan. Celebrating with everyone from the MCC Team and
MCC's partner organization ANADESA, who had birthdays in the past few months

Birthday Cake # 3 in San Salvador! Joint celebration for Karla and I.
Back row, L-R: Olivia (friend and co-worker from ANADES) and my host grandma Hilda
Front row, L-R: Belen, Karla, Miguel, and I

My Salvadoran Mailing Address!!

Some of you have been asking about my mailing address here in El Salvador, so finally, here it is! I'm giving you my work address, because chances are my living arrangements will change at least once or twice more this next year!
Unfortunately mail isn't the most reliable, and will probably take a month or maybe 2 to get to me. But better late than never! And it's recommended not to send large packages, or anything valuable, because they might get opened up/stolen. But something small/sentimental would be appreciated :)
Anyways, here's where you can send things to, if you feel so inclined. But emails are always nice too!

Asociación Nuevo Amanecer de El Salvador
Attn: Maria Steinman
Colonia El Triunfo
Final Pasaje Molina #14
San Ramon, Mejicanos, S. S.
El Salvador
2284-1353

Recap of Language Study in Guate

Can’t believe it’s already November, and that it's been 3 weeks since I said goodbye to all my friends in Guatemala City. I thought before I started writing more about my experiences here in El Salvador, I would finish a blog post I started writing a while ago, about my time spent in Guate for language study. I've had a lot of time these past few weeks to be alone and think about everything that's been going on (sometimes that's a good thing, sometimes not...) but hence, this is why there's been more blog posts lately!
I had such an amazing time in Guatemala that I wanted to write more about it, and now that life has slowed down a bit, I finally have time to do so. 

I spent a month and a half studying Spanish at CASAS, and although I learned a lot, I still have a LONG way to go until I'm finally fluent.

CASAS is a program run by SEMILLA, the Latin American Anabaptist Seminary in Guatemala City. The Spanish word “semilla”, means seed. The mission of SEMILLA is “to prepare men and women to follow Jesus Christ faithfully and, thus, to live out the reign of God with justice and peace today”. The Seminary was started in the 1980’s, by Central American Christians who were beginning to learn more about their Anabaptist roots. Besides the CASAS program, SEMILLA runs 3 other programs: a Biblical, Theological & Pastoral Training Program, SEMILLA Publishing (which prints and distributes Spanish language editions of Anabaptist/Mennonite publications), and a guest house, (which if you’ve ever come to Guatemala with MCC, you have probably spent a night or two here – I stayed here my first and last night in Guatemala when I came 6 years ago with a group from my church, on an MCC Work and Learn Team).

All 4 departments/programs of SEMILLA are located at the same site, so I was able to meet people working in other departments as well. Everyone was so welcoming and friendly. They have a great community there (kind of reminded me of Grebel!) and all the staff meet together every 2 weeks for a chapel service, which I got to participate in twice during my stay there.

CASAS stands for Central American Study and Service. It offers Spanish classes (for all levels), accomodations with host families, and scheduled activities for the students to learn more about Guatemalan culture and history. Although I had learned most of the Spanish grammar rules in my university classes, it was a good review for me (since I had forgotten most of it!) and I'm so glad I was given the chance to study for so long, before beginning my work with ANADES. Plus, it's one thing to "know" the grammar rules, but it's another thing to actually use what you've learned while having a conversation with a native Spanish speaker! 

Plus, the CASAS teachers are great, because not only do they focus on teaching you grammar and vocab, but they also work on conversational Spanish (my teacher and I could have chatted all day if we wanted to!) and teaching you about various social justice issues in Guatemala. People can study there for university credit, or non-credit (like me), and can be there from 1-3 months. I have met quite a few people that did the 3 month CASAS program, and loved it, and have since returned to Guatemala again, in part because of the great experience they had here the first time. If anyone is looking for something to do either before, during, or after university, I would recommend looking into it! Here's the website, and feel free to ask questions!

http://semilla.org.gt/casas%20en.html

Here are some highlights from my month of studies (besides writing tests, and learning my Spanish grammar and verb tenses, of course):

-         Conversations in “Spanglish” at morning snack time and lunch in the cafeteria with the other CASAS students, as well as the wonderful CASAS and SEMILLA staff members

-         Getting to know the 3 other CASAS students better, and building great friendships with them – Aaron is from Pennsylvania, and is a fellow MCC SALTer, who will be spending the next 10 months working with the indigenous community in Santiago Atitlan, Guatemala. Rachel is from Ohio, and is beginning her 3-year MCC term. She will soon be headed to Alta Varepaz, to work at Bezaleel (the school where I volunteered with my church, 6 years ago!) to teach in the nursing program. Lastly, Florian (or Flo) is from Germany, (he was the only one not with MCC) and will be working for the next year in San Salvador, with the Lutheran Church.  

-         Day Trip to beautiful & touristy Antigua

-         Playing card games with my 60 year old Spanish teacher Edna (best teacher ever!), while blasting Enrique Iglesias music

-         Trips across the street for ice cream at Sarita!

-         Making rellenitos! (hard to explain, but they’re kind of like a fried donut but made out of plantain, with puréed black beans and sugar in the middle – sounds gross, but it’s actually a really yummy dessert – one of my favourites in Guate!)

-         Trip to the beautiful Guatemala City Zoo

-         Playing Apples-to-Apples in Spanish!

-         Volunteering at a hospital down the street, playing games and giving lots of love and hugs to 30 malnourished kids, who live at the Nutritional Centre at the hospital, because their parents can’t afford to feed them or take care of their health needs

-         Learning about Guatemalan culture, education, history, politics, social justice issues (and even dating customs!) from my teacher Edna, and teaching her about Canada as well

Here are some pictures with me and some of my new friends :)



Lunch at CASAS (don't worry, lunch usually didn't come in styrofoam plates).
Aaron, Flo, Rachel and I





cooking up some Rellenitos in the CASAS kitchen! mmmmm...delicious!




Edna and I on our field trip to Antigua