English version below
Hallo ihr Lieben,
ich hoffe ihr hattet frohe Feiertage! Ich selbst hatte überraschend schöne Weihnachten. Am Donnerstag wurden Jenny und ich zu einem kleinen Umzug eingeladen (Carola ist für zwei Wochen in die USA geflogen, wo sie ihre Eltern trifft), den zwei als "María y José" verkleidete Kinder anführten und bei dem das Anklopfen an verschiedene Türen nachgespielt wurde. Schließlich wurden wir in ein Haus eingelassen, wo sich alle in eine Runde setzten und ihre Gedanken zu Weihnachten äußerten. Ich war beeindruckt, wieviel Tiefsinniges und Modernes da gesagt wurde! Am Freitag morgen haben Jenny und ich dabei geholfen Geschenketüten für die Kinder zusammenzustellen, die abends die Messe besuchen würden, und wurden dabei zum Abendessen nach der Messe eingeladen. Davor hatten wir bereits einen Peace Corps - Freund, Guy, zu uns eingeladen und die leckeren "Patacones" (frittierte Kochbananenscheiben), Salat, Reis und Kürbis zubereitet - für uns fürstlich viele verschiedene Dinge! :) Obwohl wir nur zu dritt waren, war die Atmosphäre ganz wunderbar und ich fühlte mich sehr wohl mit den beiden. Um 22 Uhr gingen wir dann in die Messe, wo wir mit hiesigen Bräuchen bekannt gemacht wurden, zum Beispiel reihten sich alle Kinder auf, um das kleine hölzerne Jesuskind zu küssen, bevor es in die Krippe gelegt wurde, wo es bislang noch gefehlt hatte. Von unserem Umzug her kannten wir auch schon einige der Lieder, die mir alle sehr gefallen, auch wenn ich immer noch nicht weiß, warum die Fische im Fluss trinken ;) (siehe http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L6_nZapQyps&feature=player_embedded#! - Vorsicht Ohrwurmgefahr!)... Danach ging es mit unserem Vermieter, dessen Frau und zwei sehr hübschen und intelligenten zwei Töchtern (4 und 11 Jahre) zum Haus seiner zwei Brüder und derer Familien, sie alle haben hier im Dorf den großen Supermarkt gegründet und es war dementsprechend irgendwie lustig sie über den fälschlichen Konsum zur Weihnachtszeit sprechen zu hören. :) Es wurde sich ganz aufmerksam meiner Essgewohnheiten entsinnt und ich bekam statt der "Tamales" (Maisteig mit Füllung - in dem Fall Huhn - in Bananenblätter gewickelt) die doppelte Menge an "Platanos maduros" (mit Honig angebratene reife Kochbanenenscheiben) und Trauben. Guy hatte sogar mit in der Stadt gekauftem Vollkornmehl und Gewürzen einen Brotteig zubereitet, den er in den Ofen der Familie schieben konnte und die Kruste, die allen anderen recht hart erschien, löste natürlich große Begeisterung bei Jenny und mir aus! Endlich mal ein richtiges Brot! :) Irgendwann klärte sich dann auch das Rätsel für uns auf, warum die Messe so spät angesetzt gewesen war und wir erst danach eingeladen worden waren, denn hier wird Weihnachten genau um Mitternacht gefeiert, und es kam uns eher vor wie Silvester, als plötzlich alle aufsprangen und einander "Feliz Navidad" wünschten und man sogar Raketenlärm hörte. Nun verstanden wir auch, warum die Kinder so lange auf ihre Geschenke hatten warten müssen... Erwachsene bekommen hier übrigens keine Geschenke, Jenny und ich haben uns aber nicht daran gehalten und uns selbst die schon lang ersehnte Hängematte zu Weihnachten geschenkt! :) Allerdings hatten wir etwas Probleme sie aufzuhängen und warten nun auf jemanden vom Supermarkt, der uns dabei zu helfen versprochen hat (sozusagen ein Montageservice ganz nach Ikea-Art ;) ) und da Jenny die Gangart seines Pferdes zu erkennen meint, üben wir jetzt schon mal für "Wetten, dass..." im Erkennen von Leuten, die an unserem Haus vorbeireiten. :)
Die letzten Tage war es sehr heiß, heute regnet es wieder, aber ich hoffe, dass es nicht noch einmal die erlebten Ausmaße annehmen wird! Ich war sehr erstaunt gewesen, wie schnell die mir riesig erscheinenden Wassermengen durch ein paar sonnige Tage wieder verschwunden gewesen waren! Die betroffene Landschaft, die wir vom Bus aus sahen, wirkte allerdings, als ob ein Sturm darübergefegt wäre.
Am 30. wollen wir wieder in die Stadt fahren und Jenny wird eine Freundin vom Flughafen abholen, die hier auch Praktikum machen wird und Guy seine Verlobte, die ihn besuchen kommt, und wir werden dann zusammen Silvester feiern.
An dieser Stelle möchte ich auch euch allen einen guten Übergang ins neue Jahr wünschen und euch ein Zitat von Manan weiterreichen, das mir ganz besonders passend für diesen Anlass erscheint:
"Don’t ask what the world needs. Ask what makes you come alive, and go do it. Because what the world needs is people who have come alive."
(Howard Thurman)
Danke an euch alle, dass ihr mich im vergangenen Jahr so reich beschenkt habt!
Eure Johanna
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| Unser selbstgekochtes Weihnachtsessen Our self-made Christmas dinner |
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| Die Krippe in der Kirche - man beachte die Lichterketten und den Schnee ;) The crib in the church - note the chain of lights and the snow ;) |
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| Man scheint sich hier gerne in Fotos zu schleichen ;) (links übrigens Jennys Essen mit Tamales) People here seem to like sneaking themselves into pictures ;) (to the left Jenny's dish with tamales) |
Hi to all of you,
I hope you’ve been having happy holidays! I myself had a surprisingly nice Christmas. On Thursday Jenny and I had been invited to a small procession (Carola has gone to the U.S. for two weeks where she is meeting her parents) which had been spearheaded by two children dressed up as “María y José” who re-enacted their walk knocking at different doors. Finally we were let into a house where we all sat down in a circle and some expressed their thoughts about Christmas. I was impressed by the profound and modern things which were being said! On Friday morning, Jenny and I helped to assemble gift bags for the children who would visit mass in the evening, where we were also invited to dinner after mass. Before that we had invited a friend from the Peace Corps, Guy, to our place and prepared the delicious “patacones” (fried plantain slices), salad, rice and pumpkin - royally many different things by our standards! :) Although it was only the three of us, the atmosphere was really wonderful and I felt very comfortable with the others. At 10 pm we went to mass where we learnt about local customs, for example all children lined up to kiss the wooden little Jesus before it was put into the crib, where it had been missing so far. We already knew some of the songs from the procession which I all quite like, though I still don’t know why the fishes drink in the river ;) (see http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L6_nZapQyps&feature = player_embedded # - beware of the catchy tune!)... Afterwards, together with our landlord, his wife and two very pretty and intelligent daughters (4 and 11 years), we went to the house of his two brothers and their families, who all have established the large supermarket here in the village, so it was kind of funny they to hear them speak about the inappropriate consumption at Christmas time. :) They even kindly remembered my eating habits and I got twice the amount of “Platanos maduros“ (slices of ripe plantain fried with honey) and grapes instead of the “tamales” (corn dough with filling - in this case chicken -, wrapped in banana leaves). Guy had even prepared a bread dough with whole-wheat flour that he had bought in the city and spices, which he could put into the oven there and the crust which appeared pretty hard to all the others caused great enthusiasm on the part of Jenny and me! At last an actual bread! :) At some point we could also finally clear up the riddle why the mass had been scheduled so late and why we had been invited only after that, which is because Christmas is celebrated at midnight here, and we felt rather like on New Year's Eve when suddenly everyone jumped up and wished each other “Feliz Navidad” and we could even hear rockets. Now we also understood why the children had had to wait that long for their gifts... Adults don’t receive any gifts here by the way, but Jenny and I didn't abide by that and bought ourselves a long-desired hammock for Christmas! :) However we’ve been having some problems putting it up and are now waiting for someone from the supermarket who has promised to help us (an Ikea-style assembly service ;) ) and as Jenny said she’d be able to recognize the gait of his horse, we are now practicing recognizing people who ride by our house for the German TV show “Wetten, dass...?” (“Wanna bet that...?”. :)
The last few days had been very hot, today it's raining again, but I hope that it won’t take on the same scale another time! I had been very surprised at how quickly the huge amounts of water had disappeared only after a few sunny days! The affected landscape which we saw from the bus appeared, however, as if a storm had only just swept across it.
On the 30th we’re going to return to the city and to pick up a friend of Jenny's who is also going to do an internship here and also Guy’s fiancee who is coming to visit him from the airport, and we’re planning to celebrate New Year's Eve together.
I hope you’ve been having happy holidays! I myself had a surprisingly nice Christmas. On Thursday Jenny and I had been invited to a small procession (Carola has gone to the U.S. for two weeks where she is meeting her parents) which had been spearheaded by two children dressed up as “María y José” who re-enacted their walk knocking at different doors. Finally we were let into a house where we all sat down in a circle and some expressed their thoughts about Christmas. I was impressed by the profound and modern things which were being said! On Friday morning, Jenny and I helped to assemble gift bags for the children who would visit mass in the evening, where we were also invited to dinner after mass. Before that we had invited a friend from the Peace Corps, Guy, to our place and prepared the delicious “patacones” (fried plantain slices), salad, rice and pumpkin - royally many different things by our standards! :) Although it was only the three of us, the atmosphere was really wonderful and I felt very comfortable with the others. At 10 pm we went to mass where we learnt about local customs, for example all children lined up to kiss the wooden little Jesus before it was put into the crib, where it had been missing so far. We already knew some of the songs from the procession which I all quite like, though I still don’t know why the fishes drink in the river ;) (see http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L6_nZapQyps&feature = player_embedded # - beware of the catchy tune!)... Afterwards, together with our landlord, his wife and two very pretty and intelligent daughters (4 and 11 years), we went to the house of his two brothers and their families, who all have established the large supermarket here in the village, so it was kind of funny they to hear them speak about the inappropriate consumption at Christmas time. :) They even kindly remembered my eating habits and I got twice the amount of “Platanos maduros“ (slices of ripe plantain fried with honey) and grapes instead of the “tamales” (corn dough with filling - in this case chicken -, wrapped in banana leaves). Guy had even prepared a bread dough with whole-wheat flour that he had bought in the city and spices, which he could put into the oven there and the crust which appeared pretty hard to all the others caused great enthusiasm on the part of Jenny and me! At last an actual bread! :) At some point we could also finally clear up the riddle why the mass had been scheduled so late and why we had been invited only after that, which is because Christmas is celebrated at midnight here, and we felt rather like on New Year's Eve when suddenly everyone jumped up and wished each other “Feliz Navidad” and we could even hear rockets. Now we also understood why the children had had to wait that long for their gifts... Adults don’t receive any gifts here by the way, but Jenny and I didn't abide by that and bought ourselves a long-desired hammock for Christmas! :) However we’ve been having some problems putting it up and are now waiting for someone from the supermarket who has promised to help us (an Ikea-style assembly service ;) ) and as Jenny said she’d be able to recognize the gait of his horse, we are now practicing recognizing people who ride by our house for the German TV show “Wetten, dass...?” (“Wanna bet that...?”. :)
The last few days had been very hot, today it's raining again, but I hope that it won’t take on the same scale another time! I had been very surprised at how quickly the huge amounts of water had disappeared only after a few sunny days! The affected landscape which we saw from the bus appeared, however, as if a storm had only just swept across it.
On the 30th we’re going to return to the city and to pick up a friend of Jenny's who is also going to do an internship here and also Guy’s fiancee who is coming to visit him from the airport, and we’re planning to celebrate New Year's Eve together.
I would like to wish you all a very good transition into the new year and hand you over a quote from Manan which struck me as particularly appropriate for this occasion:
Thanks to all of you for greatly enriching my life during this past year!
"Don’t ask what the world needs. Ask what makes you come alive, and go do it. Because what the world needs is people who have come alive."
(Howard Thurman)
Thanks to all of you for greatly enriching my life during this past year!
Johanna
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