Merry Christmas!

Hola! I hope everyone had a wonderful and loving Christmas and New Year’s! As this was my first Christmas outside the U.S. and without my family, it was a very strange one---and yet, with my JVC family here (along with the visiting families of JVs), we managed to make it a rather normal one. On Christmas Eve, Bianca’s family cooked a huge feast, and we then played games, watched Miracle on 34^th Street, and attempted to shoot off a few fireworks at midnight. The next morning we woke up, improvised some French toast, stuffed ourselves with cookies, drank the Cacao/Rum mixture that our awesome in-country Jesuit Fr. Joe brought us, and exchanged Secret Santa gifts. The tradition with Secret Santa here is that you give 3 gifts to your person: one found, one made, and one bought (60 Córdoba or less—about $3US). It was really interesting and funny to see the different things that people came up with for each gift. I got some coconut earrings, nail polish, coupons for a refresco date and a back massage, and an oh-so-lovely sounding romance novel called Texas Woman. (haha) After that, we sat around and sang Christmas songs while Heather and Lauren played guitar. It was all so simple and yet very, very beautiful. 

I was also grateful to be able to talk to my family on the phone for a bit as well. I had only been able to talk to my mom for a few minutes at the Cyber once before, so it was really nice catching up with everyone.

So fast forward a bit--for the past week all four new Nica JVs and I have been in a campo community called Lagartillo, where we were living with campo families and going to Spanish school. Getting there was an insane adventure in itself, as we missed every single bus that Tony told us to take, and we ended up traveling across Nicaragua with only city names and random Nicaraguans to guide us. We did end up making it there with most of our self-confidence still intact, though.

The following days passed too quickly. Mi profesora Lisbeth and I met for four hours each day to study Spanish, where I asked her every single Spanish-related question I could possibly think of. When I wasn’t in class, I was falling in love with the Nicaraguan people and the beauty of campo life. One day I spent the afternoon picking coffee beans with my homestay mother, Mama Fran and her grandson Ronald. Another day we hiked out to a gorgeous series of waterfalls and jumped off a few. We also climbed down them, and one Nicaraguan named Yomar showed us a small cave behind one. Another day I learned the process of tortilla making, starting with the grinding of the corn and ending with a semi-round tortilla that Mama Fran had to go back and fix for me.

The nights were also just as beautiful (although we tended to go to bed around 9:00 each day--haha). But really--never have I looked at the sky and almost not been able to find Orion because there were so many other stars. And when you add your friends and a beautiful Nicaraguan man singing songs with his guitar, the moment really can’t get any better. 

Hmmm. I realize that I’m probably still in the “honeymoon stage” when it comes to my love of the campo, but who knows…maybe one day I’ll decide to actually live in a place like that.

But anyway, right now I’m back in Managua just hanging out. I don’t start work until this next Monday (Jan. 9^th), so Chelsea, Tobin, Tobin’s Nicaraguan friends, and I might go to the beach tomorrow or something. Vamos a ver. I hope all of you are doing well, and sorry this is so long. I feel like I didn’t even cover half of everything, but I won’t subject you to more. Haha

Con mucho amor!

Jana