I promise that my next sentence doesn't reflect the tone of the rest of this post.
Christmas this year was kinda a disappointment. I've been told so many times in the past to not set many expectations of exchange, mostly because life in a foreign country is thoroughly unpredictable, but I thought it was safe to set some expectations of Christmas, since AFS sent out an email describing Christmas traditions similar to those in the US. Turns out, Christmas in Ecuador is not nearly the huge deal that it is in the US, in fact, its a much more subdued affair, despite the fact that, come the holiday season, the plazas get draped from head to toe in Christmas lights.
For starters, school vacations are shorter, only about a week and a half, and classes go through the 23rd of December. As for Christmas eve, I spent it like like most any other day, with the exception of some family and close family friends coming over for a very late dinner that consisted of chicken, rice, and potatoes, which we eat almost on a daily basis. After dinner and some nice conversation, our guests left, and everyone went to sleep. I do want to say that even though it was a quieter evening than I expected, it wasn't bad, I just came out of it expecting more.
My family is Catholic, and although we haven't gone to a single mass since I arrived, I assumed we would go to mass on Christmas eve, considering it's one of the most important Christian holidays. In the end we didn't go, which made no sense to me, until I Skyped with my mom and aunt who are both AFS returnees. They both said that Christmas was not a big deal on either of their exchange years, and my aunt said that Americans tend to go to and be more involved in their churches than in other countries. I hadn't thought about that before, but I can absolutely see how it's the case. In the US we tend to measure how devout someone is by how often they attend religious services, and how involved they are with their religious organizations. I cant say anything about the rest of the world, but in Ecuador, a person's devout-ness isn't measured in the same way. 95% of the population is considered Roman Catholic, and while they may not attend church ever Sunday, or even every month, they are deeply religious. You can see it in the way there are always fresh flowers on all of the graves in the cemetery, the depictions of the last supper that hang in every home, the way there are more nativity scenes than Christmas trees, the short Catholic mass held at my public school that every student had to attend, and most of all the beliefs that the people hold. The way religion influences life here is so incredibly widespread, especially because almost everyone belongs to the same one. That kind of homogeneity just doesn't exist in the US.
On Christmas morning we packed up our car and drove to Guayaquil to visit an aunt who lives there. The four days that we spent there were fantastic. Nothing screams vacation like hot weather, the beach, a nice pool, mangoes, and napping in a hammock. I spent the whole time marveling at how wealthy my aunt and her family are. Ecuador is considered a developing country (For a full list click here), and there isn't as much economic inequality within Guaranda as in larger cities like Guayaquil, so spending four days in a huge house, with a pool and basketball court, reminded me of how much of a gap there is between the rich and the poor. Then remembering that, I realized that we tend to give a connotation of unhappiness to anyone we consider poor. I don't mean to say that living in poverty is necessarily a desirable situation, but what I sorta knew in the past, and what I am seeing and living now, is that not everyone who is poor is unhappy. There's this painted picture of impoverished people in developing countries who are unhappy, malnourished, eeking out an existence. Don't get me wrong, there are real disadvantages to living in poverty, but I think that the negative side is emphasized to pull at our heartstrings and wallets. It's been a beautiful little epiphany to realize that Ecuador, and many other developing countries I'm sure, are not places brimming with poor and unhappy masses, but rather with people living lives that can be extremely different from ours, but are not the unhappy squalor we sometimes make them out to be.
Some pictures from Guayaquil!
This is at the Iguana Park, a square in downtown Guayquil that is literally crawling with iguanas!
Años Viejos
It's safe to say that New Years is a much bigger deal to Ecuadorians than Christmas. There are quite a few parts of New Years here that are similar to the US, like parties, fireworks (although not to the same extent), toasting to the New Year, etc., as well as some distinctly different parts. The biggest celebratory tradition is the making and burning of the años viejos. The años viejos come in two different forms, the first of which are dolls made from old clothes, paper mâché heads/faces, and stuffed with newspaper. The second form are representations of anything from politicians and celebrities to comic book characters and animals made entirely of paper mâché, called monigotes. The monigotes can be incredibly impressive, some because of size (I saw one of Mufasa from the Lion King that was almost two stories tall!), some because of detail, and some because of both. There's a competition for the best monigote, and some people really go all out! The idea behind the años viejos is to make your doll in the form of someone who did bad things in the last year and then you burn them at midnight, to send the bad things off with the last year. Although, like many things, this tradition has become more commercialized, I still think it's a pretty awesome thing to do, and it’s fun to see how creative people get!
These are the paper mache faces that people buy to put on their homemade años viejos.
My family wishing each other 'Feliz Año' at midnight
I spent New Years Eve walking around Guaranda looking at all of the años viejos, eating a turkey dinner with family, burning our años viejos and toasting at midnight, and then dancing until 6 in the morning. Over all it was a rather fantastic night, and I don't know how quickly the police would show up if we started burning años viejos in the street in the US, but it's a tradition that I'd like to continue in the future!
It's been almost five months now, so I'm practically half way there. I can hardly believe it, and it makes me both excited for the five months to come, and sad that half of the year is already over.
Hasta luego,
Elisa
Feliz año, Elisa!
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