Feliz Navidad!

Merry Christmas from Cap Corps Managua!

To see our holiday greeting, click here!

Although there's nothing like being home for the holidays, we have done all that we can to stay in the festive mood, patiently (yet zealously!) awaiting the birth of Jesus.  As a community, we decided to draw names for a "Secret Santa" gift exchange. We started by making and hanging our stockings. With a 100Cordoba ($4-5) limit, we gave little gifts (special chocolates, nail polish, pop, etc) throughout Advent, and then planned a grand fiesta for right before Christmas--to reveal who we drew and to exchange a bigger gift.  We also splurged on a "Carlos Cafe" (Charlie Brown) Christmas tree and lights.  We 'creatively used what we had' by making a tree skirt out of a pillow sham and decorating pine cones with silver sparkley nail polish. I needle-pointed the Santa ornament and the rest Matt's mom sent in a Christmas package!

Our official Christmas celebrations began with  Nicaragua's biggest holiday, La Purisima, which is a celebration of the Immaculate Conception.  I think the best way of describing it is by combining the 4th of July (fireworks!), Christmas caroling (singing to shrines for Mary), and trick-or-treating (and receiving candies, toys, and even dishes).  We celebrated big--starting on the 7th, Cantera had a Purisima in the morning.

We used our song books and noise-makers, sang songs and said prayers to Mary. Every few minutes, one of the office staff members would come out with another treat--desserts, candies, drinks, and then buckets filled with fruits and candies!

Our Cap Corps community with all of our goodies in front of the shrine at Cantera!

 After lunch and a quick nap at home, we went with Chepe and a few Nicaraguan friends to Leon, which is a very popular place for grand Purisimas.  We connected with some friends of Chepe and went with them around the neighborhood.  We stopped at a few of the houses who had open Purisimas--instead of "trick-or-treat"ing, the family would ask“Quien causa tanta alegría?” (Who causes so much joy?) and we all responded by yelling, “La concepción de Maria!” (the conception of Mary), before receiving our goodies.   Here are a few of the shrines that we visited:

This is how many of the Purisimas look:
the family passing out goodies to people as they pass by on the street.
This particular shrine had a line that wrapped around the block!

Our community in front of a giant Christmas tree!

Since Chepe had 'connections', we were able to participate in some 'by-invitation-only' Purisimas.  After singing a few songs outside, the families invited us into their homes, where they had extravagant Christmas decorations, drinks, and tons of treats (see below).  I'm not entirely sure how to describe the feeling of associating with a class of Nicaraguans with whom we had previously not had much (if any) interaction.  As 'our people' passed by on the streets, hoping to receive something useful like a plate or spoon from each Purisima (not going to lie, that's really what we needed too!), we were inside mingling with the head of the national police's family, an ex-head-of-education, and a bishop.  It was a culture shock! We were relieved to have a relaxing walk back to the truck, and enjoyed stopping by a concert and fireworks show in the park and a few more humble shrines along the path.  However, we weren't expecting to come back to a completely deflated tire! Chepe led the tire change and in no time we were back on the road. Definitely a successful Purisima, but I look forward to spending next year's in our little neighborhood--I wonder how different it will be?!

Typical Nica Dulces (sweets)

Colored fireworks are very expensive here,
so they are only used on  very special occasions.

wah wahhh

Christmas celebrations continued with our work party, which included a beautiful outdoor Mass (yep, in December), live band, lunch (with sausage, chicken AND steak!), a gift exchange, and of course plenty of dancing!

We were going for an awkward family photo in front of the Christmas tree..
You can't see the tree and it doesn't really look like a family photo, but at least we got the awkward part!

Our next event was our community's little Christmas party.  After finding out our destination pizza-place was closed on Mondays, we decided to splurge yet again on dinner at The Diner, a new restaurant not too far from our house.  They had everything from chili cheese dogs and mushroom bacon(!) burgers, shakes cheese fries!! Attempting to order off the English menu in a Spanish accent (so the waiters could understand!) turned out to be pretty humorous! 

NYC or MGA?!

Megan and I shared cheese fries (yummm).
I promise we didn't actually share each individual fry!

After gaping over the menu for a while, we spent most of our time making guesses as to who had who, and then did the final gift exchange for our Secret Santas.  

Ana had Me, I had Courtney, and Courtney had Ana!
In case you're wondering, Ana is holding a special spatula
used to clean bee hives -- she's a real beekeeper now!

Matt and Megan had each other..
Matt now has his very own peanut butter (a real treat here!)
and Megan received a book of letters from friends and coworkers in Nicaragua!

Merry Christmas, Community!

Now we're officially on Christmas break -- Ana is excited to be harvesting at the apiary (bee hives), Matt & Megan will be having their end-of-the-year party this week, Courtney is at home in Rhode Island for the holidays, and I'm, well, catching up on blogging! and then looking forward to some down time before KELLI COMES ON THE 28th!!! 


I hope you all have a blessed Christmas, whether you're far from home or right next to the ones you love.  Give each other my love and hugs and be assured that I am thinking about and praying for you constantly, especially this week.  


All the love in the world, 
-Isa

I'll be home for Christmas, if only in my dreams ...

PS - Read below for the family Christmas letter!