Hay, Dios Mio!!!

So, my first Christmas away from home was extraordinarily boring and uneventful. I expected something out of them, ANYTHING, since they´re really religious and seemed to be preparing for Christmas, but the day was just like any other day, it was strange. It made things kind of lonely, but I guess that was to be expected. I did initiate a sing-a-long on Christmas Eve by handing my guitar to someone who knows how to play, so we sat in front of the house and played some latin-sounding tunes (well, I listened). As you can see, we were hanging out with David Ortiz (left). In his down time he hangs out in my town, withOUT the bling:

It turns out that the bigger day to celebrate is Three Kings day (Saturday, Jan. 6th). This is the day that people give the children cheap gifts which usually break the next day. Perhaps what is more fun than the gift itself is smashing it into a million pieces once it breaks. I went to the Catholic church for this holiday where they gave free gifts to kids. It was crazy once they came out with the box of toys, I'm surprised that no one was trampled to death. See the picture below, the poor woman with the box was trying desperately just to stay on her feet as kids and parents alike were just short of throwing punches to get the next gift.

Jose Miguel was a little disappointed in the Salem, MA t-shirt I gave him with the black cat on it, though I assured him it would fit perfectly in a few years.

New Years Eve was fun, my friend Michael came up to my site and we had a fun and relaxing time. Michael was one of the trainees in my site before me, so he already had friends in my community.

Random thoughts:

There are some English phrases and expressions which are so engrained in me that I can´t help but say them, or I feel I don´t have an equivalent Spanish translation for it so I just use English. “Oh my God” is one I say so often that it comes out unconciously. I didn´t realize how much I had been saying it here until Jose Miguel recently picked up the phrase, and I find it hysterical ever time he says it. Other English expressions I use are, “wow”, “oops”, “ouch”, and “cool”. For “cool”, there is a Spanish translation, “che´vere”, but people think its funny or weird when I say it so I don´t use it often. I actually caught Jose Miguel on video saying “Oh my God”, watch, its so funny. Its dark but the audio is what matters. I had just been spinning him around endlessly or playing some other older sister/younger brother torture/fun game:



It didn´t take long before everyone in town knew my name. I´m trying my best to remember other peoples´ names too, I even have a notebook where I write down names of people with a detail or two about that person to help me remember, but its hard to know everyone in a town when I´ve only been here six weeks or so. Lately when I walk down the street I encounter people who´s faces I don´t even recognize greeting me with a, “Hello Juana!”. Somehow they all know that I like to go for walks too, a concept which they don´t entirely understand. Just the other day I walked by a woman (a stranger to me) who said, “Juana, out for a walk (paseo)?” No, actually I am working. That´s another thing now, they all think that when I am out I am going for a walk, they don´t know that I´m actually doing work here. They´ll get it eventually.

Perhaps the most invasive of these people who know me who I don´t know are the children. They all learned my name super fast, with an excellerated learning rate because there is a song that uses the name Juana and has a nice, catchy rhyme. They have sung this song all day and all evening, every day since I have arrived. I don´t even need to be at the house (or for them to know I am in the house because I am hiding from them), to hear them singing the song, or just calling out my name in general. I don´t need to do anything or even pay them any attention, they are just fascinated with me I guess.

Anyway, at first I pretended to like the song because I thought that might make it go away faster, but I was terribly mistaken. It only encouraged them, and I´ve learned that children do not tire of the same joke over and over and over and over again. I managed to get some kids singing the Juana song on video too to show you how obnoxious it can be (note, only about two of the kids actually know the words). The words go something like this, “Juana, Juana, peel me a banana, and if you don´t want to peel the banana....” then something about my sister. It sounds a little crude I know, but as I mentioned in earlier blogs kids have no filter for that stuff. Here´s the video:

In the past couple of weeks the song has started dying out as I stopped encouraging it and asked them to sing something else. I´ve slowly but surely been learning how to live with these people to make life more livable here. Things are going well though, I´m busy with my first project, a diagnostic of the community, and am feeling productive. I like the interviewing aspect - its fun and I get to meet a lot of people. Its been raining here a lot lately, which I actually really like because it keeps things cool and keeps people out of the streets and therefore keeps the noise level down! Nights are cool and comfortable and I thoroughly enjoy wearing my long sleeves. I fear the days not far from now when the intense heat will return with no visible end in site! Until then, I´ll just enjoy things day by day.

Joan