Feliz Navidad y Prospero Año Nuevo

I had a super tranquila Christmas because I had a nasty cold all of last week, but that meant I got caught up on my hammock sitting/reading time and went through like 3 books. Here in Nicaragua Navidad refers to the 24th instead of Christmas Day on the 25th. It’s funny actually, when we were talking about holidays in class this past year and I asked the kids what day was Christmas half said the 24th and half said the 25th.

The Christmas tree that sits between the central park and the catholic church:


Overall Christmas is a much smaller deal here than in the States, there are some present exchanges and some people put up small trees and a few lights but nothing over the top. I’m used to Christmas being a holiday spent with close family and the whole world shuts down outside. Here some families have dinner together or make something special and some don’t do anything at all. And of course there are parties - house parties, bar parties, parties in the street and at midnight (which is apparently the exact time baby Jesus was born) people set off fireworks & hardcore catholics have their dinner. With such a different atmosphere than the one I associate with Christmas (umm, snow??) it really felt like a normal day, except a lot noisier in the night.

I did get out of my hammock a little bit on the 24th though so I could see some friends and do what we always do, sit around and talk. I brought my camera but the only picture I took was of my landlord’s niece’s daughter who’s adorable and has finally decided that she isn’t completely terrified of me so we played and she tries to say my name but it comes out Issimer instead of Jennifer. We’re gonna keep working on that one.



Just to make it feel a little more like Christmas I bought some goodies and stuck them in my stocking, which included an apple like, ahem, Santa always left in my stocking at home. It is an unfortunate fact that apples are seriously expensive in Nicaragua. Why? Because they import the suckers from the US, the climate isn’t exactly prime for growing apples around here. So the standard, cheap fruit of my previous life suddenly became a rare treat when I moved here. I accept that because previously rare treats such as mangos & avocados are so plentiful and cheap in Nica. And of course, I took a picture of me and my apple:




One friend did comment something about who knows where I’ll be next year on the 24th. Usually when people speculate about where I’ll be in a year I laugh because I really have no idea, but I told him “I imagine I’ll be in Minnesota with my family next year on the 24th.”