Lit up for the Holidays!

Hiiiiiiii! Feliz Navidad! Felicidades!! The holidays are here!! Today is December 26, 2011, the day after Christmas and I’m feeling JOLLY. Ha! Before I get to the holidays, I want to mention a few fun things that have happened since I got back from Iguazu Falls, Argentina around Thanksgiving. Well, I’ll start off with a bummer. Monetti and I officially finished our Spanish classes which totally bums us out. I love Vivi (our sassy Spanish teacher) and am going to miss going to class. However, we already have plans to hang out “outside of school” with Vivi in February so I look forward to that. On the upside, I received a really cool card from Lara Torii, all the way from Malaysia. Lara is a 2^nd year GSV, like me, serving internationally in Malaysia this year. It’s so cool to get a letter from the other side of the world from a super cool friend. I also was excited to receive more mail from another awesome friend, keeping me updated on Westchester’s Finest. Vote for Bernice Spreckman!

You wanna know something? One of my favorite things about receiving mail here, besides the fact that it comes 3 months after it is sent, is just looking at the handwriting of the person who wrote it. I keep the envelopes just because it’s so fun for me to look at the handwriting. It makes me feel like at some point the person on the other end was physically touching the same piece of paper, it was in their house, or apartment, or desk..maybe there’s even a little coffee stain on the paper, or smudge that came from their world all the way to my world here. It really is so cool. I never thought, ever, that handwriting/paper can make me smile as much as it does.

            What else is cool? Oh Mbopi, our black cat had kittens this month!!! Let me give a quick shortened version of this. So the Sisters say “no animals allowed.” Yet, we have managed to be taking care of two dogs and Mbopi, our cat. Well, I get a call at almost 11pm one night from one of this Sisters. Jessica Come To My House Right Now. Me “Sister, its 11pm, what happened? Did something happen?” (Remember my bedtime is 9:30pm). Jessica and Krystina, Come here now. So we walk 30 feet into their house to see them pointing at Mbopi who is chillen in their bookcase all bloody because she just gave birth to two kittens. I could not help but hysterically laugh. Out of all the places for our cat to give birth, did she really have to creep into the sister’s house and do it inside their book case?? Classic. Anyways, one kitten died the day after it was born which made me cry. The other one just died a few days ago. The sisters say that the kittens born this time of year have a hard time surviving because the heat is too intense. So, that has been a huge bummer but we also feel bad for Mbopi so we have been trying to be extra happy around her because we know that she is sad. What else? Oh, we randomly found ourselves at a free Retro-Cumbia dance concert one night where this creepy old man became Krystina’s boyfriend. At one point, we got up right under the stage in front of the huge crowd and TRIED to dance Cumbia- looking like complete idiots who are used to breakin it down to Rihanna, Gaga, and I’ll even say reggeaton, but not Retro-Cumbia. So, we jumped around and made complete fools of ourselves, as per usual.  We have been invited to communions and graduations which have been a total blast! It is so so cool to experience the “same traditions” like communions and school graduations, yet the celebrations are so uniquely different. So cool.

What else? One of the cute retired sisters here eats the inside of grapes. She peels grapes and just eats the insides. Too precious. She also told me I’m not allowed to eat too many mangoes because I’ll get sick. Another random sidenote- there is a bird here we have recently discovered that is half chicken half duck..no joke- the front looks like a duck but then it turns around and has the feathers of a chicken! Who knew Paraguay had Dickens? Another side-note is that Monetti went to the skin specialist here because she got another boil on her arm. Aside from her randomly sharing terere (cold tea that everyone drinks here) with the random taxi driver, she came home with her prescription to solve her problem: Lady Speed Stick Spray Deodorant.

            We recently started working with Escuela Taller which has been so awesome! Inside “The Obra” there are all these different jobs- all of which reach out to the families who can use the most resources. I work with the women/Fair Trade program which enables them to bring in an income for their children. Another “obra” is Escuela Taller. This is a place for the children to stay, a safe place. The kids- play sports, music, paint, etc. It’s a recreational place for the kids, giving them a safe place to just be kids. Monetti and I have been in charge of 3 sessions with them. In the first two, we led Zumba Dance classes and the last one we played soccer and volleyball. I’m already obsessed with the kids and we have only worked with them 3 times!  We are going to be working more with them in February. I cannot wait! There is no energy that is equivalent to that of youth- its uniquely fresh and I can’t suck enough of it up! We officially finished teaching English classes (as another job) but will start back up in February!

            So the year is coming to an end. Last Friday, we invited the local community to come see a play- which was put on by all of us who work at The Obra/the center. Monetti and I played English teachers in the play.

 The play was basically a short story of how Paraguay came to be an independent country from many many years ago up until today. That was hilarious and a lot of fun! It’s so cool that I work in this center with about 40 people- all of which are up for putting on a play for the local community at the end of the year. No complaints or I don’t want to’s. Everyone-- just excited to have some fun and put on a play. Such a fun feeling.

Summer break is in just a few days! We finished an order to the US which we are really proud of. New designs that totally rock! Monetti and I have also become hand and neck models for the products! Ahhhahaha!!

But, really. Never did we think we were signing up for a year of modeling here in Paraguay! Ahaha!

The artisans have been fantastic though and according to the sisters, this past year has been quite the successful one. So, we are really excited to have been a part of that and hopefully keep that going. We just had our end of the year Evaluation with the Sister this morning. We put a powerpoint together and were ready to get hammered by her, just because she’s the chief and ALWAYS means business. Anyways, turns out she was pretty pleased with what we put together. Tomorrow is the Work Evaluation.

There are many different jobs/work places within “The Obra”/the center where we work. Tomorrow each site has one or two people who present their work-successes, failures, and goals for the new year. Monetti and I will be presenting about the fair trade work IN SPANISH. God Help Us! Sometimes I think we so have this language down and other days I’m like who do we think we are?? So, as everything here, that should be an adventure standing up in front of 100 people. I’m hoping one of us passes out due to the heat so then we get excused from presenting. Speaking of heat, lets break it down. Never have I ever experienced the heat that I am experiencing right now. December 21^st is the official 1^st day of summer and it has already hit up to 109 degrees here. We are CONSTANTLY sweating. Literally, every second we are sweating. When I get out of the shower, my towel is so hot (just from sitting in the heated air) that it feels like Im putting a hot towel, fresh out of the dryer right to my skin. Our sheets our hot like this too from just sitting in the heat all day. Due to this heat, we have had to adjust a bit. For example, we currently have changed our bathroom habits. We now use the bathroom standing up because the toilet water is so hot that it steams. Literally. So, we are scared of burning our butts off from the steam, so we stand. We also are currently sleeping in the kitchen.

 The two fans in the bedroom rotate so so slowly and it has got to the point where we cant sleep because we are drenched and I don’t know, just cant sleep. Hence, us moving our beds into the kitchen. The fan in our kitchen is decent so we have been getting better sleep sleeping in the kitchen squished between the fridge and gas tank. Our beds take up the entire kitchen. Its been interesting cooking zapallo (squash) need-side to the mattress.  Our fridge makes this rumbling sound every 40 minutes or so, so we have been adjusting to that sound during the night as well. Ahaha! Our first night sleeping in the kitchen we didn’t sleep because we were laughing so hard. Anyways, we are starting to love our new bedroom as its so conveniently close to the food!

            Christmas! Well, where do I even start. We spent some time with our friend Andrea (20 years old). She lives with her 14 year old brother, 7 year old sister, 9 year old cousin and 14 year old cousin. We hung out with them a few days before Christmas and helped them make their Nativity House.

It was so much fun! Everyone here makes Nativity houses, big ones, for Christmas and leaves it up until January 6^th, Three Kings Day. So there we were, drip sweating, laughing, listening to music, jumping from scorpions, eating mangoes, arranging the hay, carrying the dirt/sand, hanging up lights, putting this whole nativity house together. It came out awesome!

Monetti and I also couldn’t afford to buy a Christmas tree so we decided to make one out of all the books we had in our house. It is the cutest most perfect Christmas tree ever, with tape measure as tinsel, bandanas, shoe laces and draw strings from our PJ pants as tree wrap, and lets not forget a pine cone as our star! We also made snowflakes!

 I also colored a chimney and a fireplace while Monetti colored some stockings. We set up our fireplace right next to our tree.

We were really proud of our set-up that came to be where we ended up giving each other our Christmas presents we made for each other on Christmas night. But before that, let me give you a quick peek into Christmas Eve. We headed to Lourde’s house for Christmas Eve. Lourde’s is one of the cooks for the retired Sisters. She is 35 years old and lives with her mother, father, 4 year old daughter Valentina, and two other sisters, each of whom have one child as well. We headed there around 4:30pm to help cook Christmas dinner in the TATA QUA! Tata Qua is the guarani word for oven. It is made of rocks and dirt. It is this dome-like type cement oven outside.

We cooked chicken, pork (pig is the food to eat here for christmas), potatoe, beet, and corn salad, Sopa (hard soup), and more. Lourde’s and I scooped out the seeds of a calabaza (Paraguayan squash) and filled it with other veggies, topped with cheese for me since I don’t eat meat. RICISIMOOOOOO!!! So delicious! The tradition is to eat Christmas Dinner at midnight then everyone goes outside and shoots off fireworks and shoots their pistol guns in the air. Lets just say I stayed close to the house from fear of a falling bullet. Classic

Some other highlights from Christmas Eve night was playing with Lujan and Valentina (two 4 year olds girls I’ve mentioned in previous blogs).

It was a little hard being so far away from family during the holidays. One of my favorite things about Christmas is that it is a time I get to spend and see all my cousins-all 100 and something of them. This is the first year I have been away from my family ever, so being silly and playing with the girls, really helped lift my spirit. Valentina told me that Santa doesn’t come to her house because there is no snow and they don’t have a chimney.  Lourde’s mom said to me “we may not have a lot, but we have an unlimited amount of love in this house and we love to share it.”

I mean come on, how could I not get in the spirit of Christmas when I’m surrounded by such special people!  I feel so grateful to have shared Christmas Eve with such an incredible family.

 Christmas day started off with a lovely skype date from my insane family from home. There I am saying to myself “Jess, be present today! Its okay to miss your family, but be present. Find the joy that is right in front of you!” Waking up on Christmas morning, sweating next to the fridge, isn’t the same as waking up to Mom’s cooking or the smell of fresh baked cookies.  But then there was Gigi in her Victoria Secret matching PJ’s (as per ushe) wearing a Santa hat, there’s my Dad wearing a mullet wig, there’s Mike half sleeping up front in the camera, and then there’s Chris in a Muscle Superman Costume Suit. Do I expect anything less from the Simo family on Christmas morning?? No.

So, I was quickly swept into the spirit just by this. Story sharing, catching up, and many laughs later, I was ready- I was reboosted and ready to celebrate Christmas! On top of that, it started to rain. It hasn’t rained here in weeks and has been in the 100s! It rained Christmas morning. You know the feeling of excitement when you wake up Christmas morning and it’s snowing. I literally had that exact same feeling when I saw the water falling from the sky. Mother Nature paints the prettiest pictures!

We had lunch with the retired sisters which is always a blast. These sisters always have something to say or do that is just so classic. Hermana Modesta’s teeth fell out when she wished us a Merry Christmas. Awesome. She is the cutest. After lunch, we hung out with our friend Fabi and watched a Christmas movie.  Then I was really surprised by a Skype date from Shelly and the fam from Florida. Seeing my family, then getting an up-close shot of Grandma, Gina, and Izzy. Does it get any better?

I don’t think I could have gotten any more love than that! But oh, just wait! It’s night time, and as my dear friend Krystina and I are exchanging Christmas presents, I come to open- what has been my favorite Christmas present I think I have ever gotten.

A photo slideshow from my family with almost 200 pictures from my family Christmas party- seeing all my cousins, aunts, uncles, grandma, everyone, right there! My family sent the party to me via pictures and I sat there for 30 minutes watching the slideshow with the biggest cheesiest smile on my face! I then proceeded to read some hilarious letters and get some top quality videos that my insanely cool friends sent me. I literally would have broke the Spirit-mometer- if one existed! I felt and feel SO SO SO SO LUCKY to have such wonderful people in my life. I really think I am the luckiest girl. I have to be! I have re-watched videos and re-read letters.  Everyone’s gift was unique to who they are that I was sitting there Christmas night, with a piece of them, here with me. So cool. I am so so so grateful for all of you, my family and my friends who are my family. I love you all so much. I really really mean it when I say THANK YOU for bringing your Christmas spirit here to me, a whole continent away. I’m still lit up.  So, thank you and I love you. I’ll admit it and say that there were a FEW tears shed by both Monetti and I this night because we just felt so loved and so so lucky. Krystina Yerba Monetti, Thank you for your thoughtful Christmas present. I love my hand-made green peace tree journal. Thank you for using your creative language to fill me with laughs, as you always do, oh to well. You da best. We are here and we are doing this. Christmas 2011, one like no other.

I’m signing out now. Monetti and I have two plane tickets to the end of the world (Southern Patagonia/tip of Chile and Argentina) and we leave in four days for 20 days (summer break here now) with nothing but our backpacks and each other. And so the adventure continues…