Tuesday, December 6, 2011

It’s beginning to sound, look, smell, and taste a lot like Christmas: El concierto de Navidad, frutas y flores nuevas, y galletas de Navidad!


The small gathering after the
Christmas Concert!

Sounds of Christmas: Last week we had our yearly Christmas concert. The night was full of sounds of laughter, singing, instruments, and “Oooops”. As with many children productions there are often little Ooopses that occur. Although in Paraguay there are also the other unexpected surprises. For instance, the wind blowing the projection screen over, the sound system failing several times, and few other mishaps. Still the sounds of Christmas songs from the voices of children, in different accents rose up that night.

The decorated the courtyard of the highschool!
 It had art exhibits food for sale and other displays!


 
Sights of Christmas: With the season has come the coconut flower being sold in all of the streets. While at first I thought that it must have been a miscommunication that this strange looking brown felt like bat was a flower, I was shown otherwise as some of them that were open had a shower of flowers inside. Unfortunately mine never opened, but it did fill our apartment with a pleasant “Paraguayan Christmas” smell.



  
       Also I was able to try some new fruits that are sold here in Paraguay. One of my new favorites is that of the lichi chinesis. A small tree fruit that is very sweet. While it has a purplish pink rough exterior the inside is white and looks somewhat like a hardboiled egg. The seed is brown, hard and smooth like a little bullet. I also got to buy a little baby watermelon, which is just my size for by eating and carrying the 10+ blocks back from the store!

Smells and Tastes of Christmas: This Sunday, I had the privilege of teaching in Spanish some of the ladies at my church how to make my Aunt Lyn’s snickerdoodles. The ladies have been asking for months how to make some our US recipes. So for our Christmas party this year, we had a cooking workshop. We had a wonderful time cooking together and sharing.

Firsts:
- First time teaching how to make sugar cookies in Spanish
- First time eating lichi chinesis (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lychee )
- First time buying a little baby watermelon


Prayer Requests:
- I am traveling to the states in two days! Please pray for safe travel.
- Please pray for all of the teachers that are traveling over the next few months.



I think that I am becoming  a true Paraguayan
with my 4 thermos!