A Month of Holidays PART 1

Well, it's been a while since my last blog... so...



Christmas was cool. It was harder than I thought it would be to spend Christmas away from home (especially with record breaking cold and snowfall at home!!). I missed my family's Christmas traditions and found it really odd to have nothing happen on December 25. In Bolivia Christmas is celebrated on the 24th in the evening. My whole host family got together at about 9:30 that night and talked and took pictures by the tree (it was a fake Christmas tree.... a little difficult to get a real Christmas tree here in Bolivia) and at about 11:00 we sat down around a long table and piled our plates with chicken, pork, different kinds of salads, yucca, and other foods... whatever they were... don't remember. We sat together there for about 1 hour, although I took a break from the food with my host brother and niece and nephew and set off some tame fireworks and some firecrackers. That was fun. Once midnight hit, we all congradulated each other on the new year and kissed each other on the cheek and hugged and blessed each other. Then we went inside and my papi handed out the presents from under the tree. The presents weren't big (except for two cellphones), but they were nice and it felt good to be included in their family tradition and holiday. But, then that was that and we went home and I went to bed. Christmas Day came and no one did anything. Honest. It was a day of sleeping and relaxing and doing nothing. I skyped my family a bunch and was able to share a bit in the Christmas I'm use to over the computer. Not quite ideal and I really wanted to squeeze through the computer screen and join the rest of my family in Canada. So, my Christmas was different, but I suppose it's kind of cool to now know how Christmas is celebrated in another country.



New Years was pretty cool. I was invited to go to a party with my host neice in a small town outside of the city, but ended up staying in Santa Cruz and going to the New Years celebrations at my church. Every family was supposed to present something like a song or a testimony or a skit or something. Most families didn't have anything prepared and some whipped up something on the spot, but others had songs ready or testimonies and those were shared. I played a piano piece and felt so good because everyone loved it and my papi (the pastor) got me to play it twice. My whole family also sang a song and I accompanied them on the piano. It was cool to be a part of their family presentation. Afterwards we sang songs and then got into groups to pray for each other and for the new year and for the church. After that my papi prayed until midnight and then we all rushed around hugging and kissing and congradulating each other and hurrying out the front door to watch the awesome fireworks! We had an enormous meal outside our church and then wandered tiredly to bed and collapsed asleep.

A few days later I made a trip to Sucre, the capital of Bolivia. I wasn't able to find anyone to go with me, so I ended up heading off alone.... which was a little bit scary, but kind of exciting. The trip was supposed to take 16 hours, but it ended up taking about 22. The problem? Rain.

Being from the west coast of Canada, I'm use to rain and I like rain, but... well... there's a bit of a different attitude towards rain here in Bolivia. When it rains, it pours, and when it pours, rivers flood and streets flood and suddenly there are no more streets, only rivers. That's what happened at about 1:30 in the morning while I was dozing on the bus. I noticed the bus had stopped, but was too tired to care why. So, I fell asleep and woke up at about 2:30... we still hadn't moved. So, I fell asleep again and woke up at 4:00... we still hadn't moved. I got up and out of the bus with a bunch of other people and we discovered that there was a long line of trucks and busses ahead of us and no one was moving because the river (normally crossable) was flooded and there was no longer any road. I think I was still a little too tired to let that sink in and I clamboured back onto the bus, wandering when a new road would be ready for us to cross. It took 6 hours... and when we finally approached the river my heart did a few backflips and sank. It was a dark, muddy, rushing river. "We are going to die," I thought (not completely serious... just a little) and more rain started to fall.

The first section of river was crossed slowly and at one point the bus leaned frighteningly to the side (releasing many tense gasps from us passengers within), but we made it safely and clapped heartedly for our talented bus driver. Then, we were delayed again on a good-sized mass of land in the middle of the river. I got out again (almost missed getting back on the bus...oops) and watched as other buses tried to make the crossing. There were some wobbly crossings and I wondered how on earth the baggages stored under the bus weren't getting wet (perhaps they did) as the water was waist-high (I know this because a few people stripped off their pants and waded across with their backpacks). There was also another truck that got stuck on the other side and wobbled and teetered and slid and made me very frightened for the people sitting in the back. They managed to get out fine. Then it was my buss' turn... I most certainly have much respect for our bus driver. We made it over and out without incident! I definitely gave thanks to God for that safe crossing.

The rest of the trip was made without anything much more exciting and I managed to make it to my hostel in Sucre with the help of a kind Bolivian gentleman. My hostel was really amazing! I met so many people from all over the world (although mainly from Ireland)... Ireland, Holland, Brazil, Argentina, Belgium, England, Chile. I had a lot of fun wandering the city and talking with people and hearing stories of travels and going to super cool museums. I didn't actually end up doing too much while there. Lots of relaxing. It was a really good time and made me feel more confident: that I could plan and take a trip like this all on my own!

Anyways... I'm going to end this post and start another one so it doesn't seem like you're reading one enormous long post, just two fair-lengthed ones.