I hope you all thoroughly enjoyed your Christmas in the good ol' USA. We, well, enjoyed our Peruvian Christmas as much as we could. It was absolutely wonderful to be able to talk to our families. The Delgado family took good care of us and made us some french toast, which was a nice little piece of home for me. We also got to go over to a younger couple's house, Rosemary and Oscar, for lunch. They made us pork that was super yummy and we sat around singing songs while Oscar played the guitar. They got us some cute gifts. We spent the last few hours of our Christmas evening with a really sweet inactive member named Modesto. He's inactive because he's bedridden. He can't really hear, but he loves it when we come to visit him. It was a gratifying way to end our day.
Aside from that, we have learned that we aren't huge fans of Peruvian Christmas traditions. Well, mainly the fireworks. Everyone and their mother sets off fireworks allllllll night long. And it's not just a few... it's enough to make all of the houses shake. I managed to fall asleep, considering that I die in my bed every night, but Hermana Sanchez explained that she hid like a puppy in her bed. We hear that it's worse on New Year's! (Oh heaven help us!) Oh, and on New Year's everyone also dresses up little scarecrow doll things with everything they want to leave behind from the old year, and then they burn it in the street. We're really tempted to make one of our own...
Let's see... We've been eating lots of panetón this week, which is kind of like fruit cake but I think it tastes better, because it's traditional here.
We are welcoming in summer vacation with no water! We live somewhat close-ish to a little amusement park that has some pools. Now none of the neighborhoods have water after 10am, and if you live on the 2nd floor (like us) there's not enough water pressure to get the water upstairs. We're going to have a very creative summer here in Perú! I dare say, it's much less adventurous to camp inside than out in the woods or something.
I hope I'm not forgetting anything terribly important. I love and miss you all quite terribly this week! I'm missing Aunt Judy's Christmas Eve soups and breakfast pancakes and orange rolls with Grandma Horne. All of you be super safe this New Year.
With lots of Christmasy love and hugs,
Hermana Schroader