Sunday, December 24, 2006

And the bells are ringing out for Christmas Day

Kirsty McCall and the Pogues have a song..."When you first took my hand on that cold Christmas Eve, you promised me Broadway was waiting for me..."

I don´t have that around here, but I did listen to 2000 miles by the Pretenders about 30 times yesterday.

Friday I had a party where 30 people came. We danced so much that light fixture in the bakery downstairs fell in and we had to pop it back into the ceiling. I´d hate to have to pay for repairs or so I hope it stays. A couple Peace Corps pals came and people from my organization came and mixed a respectable amount. I had guests who came from out of town in the house until this morning, and they were kind enough to relieve me of most of the leftover booze that everyone brought.

On Christmas Eve, they have a big children´s parade on Christmas Day here, people must come in from all over the province, because when I was walking to the parade I saw a family spreading out a big picnic on the grass, while their llamas rested peacefully by the river. You see men in short pants and the traditional hat, and lots of the brightly colored flowered skirts that traditional Ecuadorians in Azuay wear. I saw a lot of the parade, dodging in and out of the floats while I was walking to a Christmas party, there were lots of children dressed in traditional Ecuadorian costume, or dressed up like shepherds, like angels, riding in floats made from a pickup trucks draped in glistening satin. Many of the trucks are hung with crackers, bottles of liquor, packages of cookies, and the effect is dramatic, everything is colorful and abundant and glittery. I went to a Christmas party in a home for women and children in domestic violence situations where I am hoping to do some work in the the New Year. They had a mass and then gave out presents to the mothers and the children. I was pretty impressed by how nice party they had for them during what must be a terrible time, especially here in Ecuador where family is perhaps the most important thing.

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