Navidad in Chocta

Festivities started a week before Christmas. Every night the week of Christmas, my extended host family went to the church with all the other Catholics in Chocta (most, to be honest are my extended family as I seem to be related to everyone in Chocta). We didn´t go there to have mass but to watch the Little kids dance a dance they call Baile Pastoras. There´s a Singer and the kids repeat what she sings and then my host dad plays the violin and someone beats the drum as the Little kids do a simple dance. It was very cute! After we practiced in Chocta, some of us walked up to the neighboring town, Cruzpata, to practice some more with the kids there. Each night someone brought coffee and rolls of bread that we enjoyed after the dancing. On Christmas Eve the kids put on their skirts and hats to do the dance. Afterwards, around 11pm, we had a mass that ended with my host mom squeezing a doll to produce a crying sound: baby Jesus is born!

Christmas day I went to Luya and was able to spend some time with Austin, TJ, and Hilary who live there. It was nice to talk in English and watch a Christmas movie together. Not the festive Christmas we´re all used to, but it was a nice afternoon with good company.

So it was quite a different Christmas and, I´m not going to lie, it wasn´t easy being away from home. In my family, Christmas is about our whole big crazy family being together. It´s about traditions of watching The Grinch and getting presents from “Santa” (who was it this year guys?). It´s about eating lots of food and even more dessert. It´s about being too loud and laughing all afternoon.

This year for Christmas Eve I ate the same potatoe soup I eat every night with just my host mom and me. It went without The Grinch and without dessert. It went without my family. But if this experience of being away from family has taught me anything, it´s how freaking lucky I am to have the family I do. I honestly can feel the love from them all the time. I think about them everyday as I know they think of me. I could not imagine being here without that support. I´m so lucky to have Christmases like the ones I´ve had. And guess what? I`ll get to have plenty more. For that I´m extremely fortunate and grateful. Many people have no family to celebrate with at all. Most don´t get to enjoy Jim Carey in an obnoxious Green suit. Most people don´t have the pleasure of feeling sick from the amount of “Sheeshee cookies” they indulged in. Many are completely content with a quiet dinner, watching children dance, and celbrating the birth of Christ in mass.

Sorry if this post was depressing, and I´m really sorry if I made you cry, Mom. But I decided I wanted to be honest and true to my Peace Corps experience on this blog. And that means writing about the good and bad. Peace Corps life is not all fun and games. It´s not all easy. It´s actually often really hard and many of us go through lots of struggles all the time. But we are completely willing to do so, because all the great days, the learning, and the growth we get to experience are worth those struggles ten times over.