Do They Know It's Christmas Time At All?

I must credit my older brother immediately for the title. It came up in a conversation on how very little changed here for the celebrations of Christmas. I’d been told practically since arriving in this country that Christmas is a huge deal here. I was thrilled because I’m a huge lover of December and all things Christmas. They said there would be parties all the time, music playing constantly, relatives from out of town, more food than I could eat including lots of pork and fresh fruit, and much more.

Well, some relatives did show up and there was pork (the kind you put on a stick and barbeque over an open pit flame.) But besides that, the days (the 24th and 25th) were pretty uneventful. I spent the majority of the 24th reading because no one was around; my Dona went off to Mexico to visit her daughter, which is all fine and well except that that left me more or less alone until she gets back in mid-January. I went to a party with some friends in the evening and ate well there. The party didn’t feel too different from other parties I’ve been to here and at their house in particular. They tend to be the party-throwers, these friends of mine. I guess one difference is that we listened to Christmas meringue instead of regular meringue. Oh another thing that was different is that my host father, who had drunk a lot of rum at the party, handed me his hand gun for safe keeping. He told me to put it in my suitcase because he didn’t want anything to happen. I found myself wondering what exactly could have happened on Christmas Eve with the gun, that wouldn’t have happened any other night?

On the 25th I spent a lot of the day reading again, I watched All The President’s Men (which might I add is an incredible Christmas movie, and I hope will be broadcast on one of the major networks for Christmas next year), and made an effort to go out at see people. The 24th is the more important day here so I didn’t want to impose on people when their families were visiting, but I didn’t mind imposing as much on the 25th. After a nice long call with my family back home, I played some dominoes, did some chit-chatting with some people here, and watched the stars at night. What is it about Christmas that always makes the stars look brighter?

Now don’t feel too bad for me having been away from home for Christmas for the first time. Although it was that, as well as sad day for some other reasons, I did get to spend the day in the Caribbean (whereas I’m pretty sure the bulk of you reading this were experiencing wind chills of negative 18 at the time) and I got 3 incredible Christmas presents. A while back I bought 2 boxes of Kraft Macaroni and Cheese (the powder kind, A.K.A. my all time favorite food.) I decided to prepare a box for my Christmas dinner, which took much explaining to many people; meals and my general lack of eating is a popular topic of conversation here, not just in my house, but all over the community. Anyways, although prepared in the dark, it was delicious. *I should caution fellow lovers of said deliciousness that the flavor of the milk and margarine that you use strongly influences the flavor of the end product, so if you’re going abroad and bringing some with you, be warned. Both Chilean and Dominican mac and cheese dinners haven’t been exactly what they are in Illinois and Washington DC.

I’d known for a few weeks that my family will be coming to visit me here in mid-January. What I also knew was that my older brother wouldn’t be able to make it. However, on Christmas I found out that he too is coming! I’m so excited for them to come. (PS-If you want to send me a letter or something, send it to them before the 16th or so and they can bring it to me here! That would be a lot faster and easier than using actual mail.)

The other Christmas present, which although I wasn’t aware it was happening at the time I immediately claimed as my own, was the Chicago Bears incredible triumph over the Green Bay Bumbling Fools. Oh I’m sorry, the Green Bay Packers. This wonderfulness (which really should have happened last year) took place just moments before the Christmas festivaling began and I had a little dance party when I saw the score on ESPN, the only English-television channel that seems to always work, rather, it seems to always work when the power is on, and the cable is functioning too.

In general the days were nice and fun, but I didn’t see what all of the hype was about. The gift exchanging, which is mostly just for the little kids anyways, is supposed to take place on Three Kings Day, the 6th of January. I have a feeling it will turn out to be not such a big deal as well. Oh and as for the hand gun, I’m nervous my host father doesn’t remember giving it to me because he was too drunk that night, so I haven’t brought it up with him. It’s sitting on the other bed in my room under some sweatpants.