12/26

My family and I traveled to the capital to visit more family for Christmas.  This part of the family is apparently really wealthy.  As we pulled into the neighborhood, the kids in the back seat exclaimed, “Look Jessie, these people are rich like you!”  Oh god.  I ignored that and pretended to not understand.  Little did they know that I was totally overwhelmed by the nice house.  I must now officially be a campo girl; I’m not looking forward to that awkward readjustment period to the US come 2 years.

Christmas Eve is the big deal here -nochebuena.  They have a big dinner together.  We had pork, chicken, a potato salad (dyed hot pink??), fruit, yucca, rice (of course), dominican-style spagghetti, and marshmallows (no idea).  There wasn’t a platano in sight – por fin! Gracias a Dios!  While preparing the dinner, my family was also trying to make luminaries for the table.  I watched as they awkwardly fumbled with the paper bags and questioned how they were supposed to do it…and predicted (correctly) that this was definitely going to end poorly.  Sure enough, half way through dinner one of the “luminaries” went up in flames.  Someone quickly threw the bag on the ground.  Considering everything is made out of cement here, common sense would say that that should have been enough, and the small fire would have eventually gone out.  Is that what happened?  No, of course not.  Someone throws a pitcher of water on it – and the thing ignites into about a 7 foot fireball a few inches from our table.  As my 75-year-old dona pushes me out of the way screaming, I sat in my plastic lawn chair and laughed uncontrollably, partially at everyone’s reactions, but also because with this I recognized that I do indeed fit in with this family.  Something strange and eventful always happens, and nothing can ever go smoothly.  Sounds like a typical day in my life, as well as a typical Christmas vacation, to me.  We finished the night off sipping champagne, listening to music, talking – a distant cousin showed up with a gun – you know, the usual.

Christmas didn’t feel like christmas at all.  They don’t do gifts here.  It was strange being in a house full of kids under the age of 10, who didn’t wake up until after 10am.  This family had a christmas tree and there was talk of Santa…so I was a tad thrown off.  There’s a rumor that gifts are given to the kids on Three Kings Day (??) in January…vamos a ver.

My dona and I decided to come back to the campo Christmas afternoon.  Halfway to the guagua stop, as their mom hops out of our car on the side of the road, I realize we are for some reason bringing two of my dona’s grandsons under the age of 5 (and all of their luggage) with us – without their mom.  What??  Guagua’s are already hard enough to manage alone, and here I am with a 4 year old passed out in my arms, multiple bags, and my 75 year old dona screaming random things at me.  People were staring (more than usual), clearly trying to piece together the story.  And then we get home, and the house is flooded.  Feliz Navidad!