Time is soaring here in Perú! I cannot believe that Christmas day has already come and passed. Celebrating Christmas in Perú has been fun and challenging in so many ways. This year has truly reminded me that Christmas is not simply one day. There is so much anticipation leading up to Christmas Eve and Christmas Day, and it is good to remember that Christmas does not end on the 25th but continues throughout the year. Christmas has been a very humbling experience this year as well. Christmas is not just about the Christmas music, going to church, the gifts, the snow, the cold weather, being with family, being in a familiar place with people you have known for years; although these are all contributing factors to what I picture when I think of Christmas in the States, Christmas is actually the birth of Jesus. Period. The other aspects are associations, albeit fond associations. Christmas still occurs without any of those associations.
The anticipation for Christmas began in Tumbes. As I arrived at my house in La Palma on the first day of December, I was nervous, realizing that for the next two years of my life I would consider this house to be my home and its inhabitants to be my family. That’s a lot to comprehend. My nerves were immediately eased as we drove up in the taxi and I could see the Christmas tree just inside the doorway. It didn’t matter where I was in the world or with whom, Christmas was still in the near future. In my couple weeks in Tumbes more and more Christmas decorations emerged on the outsides of houses and in the Health Post. I started attending meetings to organize Chocolatadas para los Niños (the community gets together to give children Panetón (similar to fruit bread), hot chocolate and toys). The Plaza de Armas in the city of Tumbes was beautifully decorated with Christmas lights, Christmas festivities were occurring in the evening, and Papa Noel (Santa Claus) even made a visit.
The evidence of the anticipation of Christmas extended and continued to Lima. The city was alive with holiday lights, greetings and sales. There were even parade floats playing and singing music. I had the opportunity to visit my host family in Chacrasana. We set up the manger scene, which includes as many animals as possible to attend the birth of Jesus. Jesus is not added to the scene until 12:01 a.m. Christmas Day.
The plan was for me to move to my new site on the 23rd of December. I was really struggling with this date. As much as I wanted to get to my site and get to work, I really was not keen on the idea of spending Christmas with a family in a community that I had literally met 12 hours prior. Nonetheless, the schedule was followed. I arrived to my site on the afternoon of the 23rd. I traveled around with the mayor and his wife to the surrounding communities to distribute the toys and panetónes as a part of the Chocolatadas para los Niños. Christmas Eve day we continued to deliver toys and panetón.
The mayor’s family and I spent the evening with the mayor’s parents (my soon to be new host parents) in their house. Slightly before midnight we began to eat dinner. We had a lovely dinner of turkey, salad, potatoes and panetón and hot chocolate. Leading up to dinner was difficult. I would occasionally tune out of the conversation and look at my watch and realize what time it was at home and know exactly what my family was doing and then look at the people surrounding me and realize that they are still nearly strangers to me. I would quickly tune back into the conversation as to not overwhelm myself with homesickness. Midnight arrived and we all stood and wished each other a merry Christmas with a hug and a kiss. We went to bed after dinner.
Christmas Day was quite lovely. I started the day by conducting my own Christmas Day service (which was very different having a service by one’s self instead of a large group of people). I read the Christmas story, sang nearly all the Christmas hymns in the hymnal and listened to St. Olaf Christmas Fest. Then I talked to my brother and sister in the U.S. The day was pretty relaxed. We went to my host grandparent’s again for lunch. We ate more delicious turkey.
Then we went to the chacra (field) to see the crops and make sure the irrigation was functioning correctly. While I was in the chacra looking at the vineyard with majestic, rolling sand dunes as the background, I felt at peace. The last couple weeks had been extremely difficult and exhausting on so many levels. As I marveled at the sand dunes, I was reminded of the beauty of God’s love and power. It is Christmas. As I saw the plants surrounding me in a field, I realized that I am surrounded by at least one thing I love—farmland—even if everything else on this day seems foreign to me. Peace.
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