Christmas in Cochabamba

I thought I would dread spending the holidays so far away from my family, my friends, and my church, but I'm really enjoying Christmas in Cochabamba. Thankfully. It's quite an experience, to say the least.

Dec. 15th was our big Christmas production at el Centro. It poured rain, we started an hour late, one of the boys vomited all over the floor, and the other kids trekked the puke all over the place. But other than that, it wasn't too much of a disaster. We had a crowd of about 70 people, which was pretty encouraging since our numbers have been low for a while. And it was fun to pass out clothes, toys, and candy to all the kids. So at the end of the year we went out with a bang. A little bang, but a bang nonetheless.

You can see some photos in my online gallery: gallery.mac.com/greeneyesopening. I would have more photos to share with you, but I had to help direct the little kids and then mop up vomit.

I have such a glamorous life...

Now that Christmas is just 2 days away, the decorations are out in full force. Multi-colored lights are strewn all over town without any rhyme or reason, and the best part is that they all play terrible, mechanical versions of Christmas carols. And of course, the carols don't play simultaneously, so it really just sounds like very high-pitched locusts have taken over the city. It's hilarious and wonderful at the same time.

Tomorrow, Dec. 24th, is actually the big day here. The familes get together to celebrate Noche Buena (Christmas Eve) by having a HUGE feast at midnight on the 24th. After gorging themselves in middle of the night, everybody exchanges Christmas gifts around 3:00am and then sleeps half the day away on the 25th. It's an interesting way to celebrate Christmas, and I'm jumping right in. I'm joiing Sra. Carmen (I live in her backyard) and her family at 9:00ish tomorrow for the big party. I won't be gorging myself so much because the food is mostly meat, but there will be plenty of delicious, gooey pastries to eat. And I hope to bring cookies to share, but that depends on whether or not my oven wants to cooperate.

Then on Christmas day, I have 4 single missionaries coming over for brunch at 10:30. It's going to be amazing...fresh squeezed OJ, french toast, eggs, cheesy hasbrowns, LOTS of fresh fruit (fruit that we don't even have in the US), hot cocoa, coffee, and who knows what else.

We're going to watch some Christmas movies and probably play games, but I'd really like to have a devotional (for lack of a better word), a time of reflection, and maybe communion.

It'll be different, but it should be a good day.