Saturday, December 26, 2009

Christmas Program in Peru


The Christmas rush for us started on Tuesday night at 8 pm with the second and last Christmas program rehearsal (smaller groups had been working for the last few weeks). The rehearsal went pretty smoothly, although I must admit I wondered how the actors would do with their lines.

The invitations for the Christmas program said 7:30 pm. We intended the first 30 minutes to be meet and greet time. In typical Peruvian style, most of the programs participants were there by 8 and the program started at 8:30. We had many visitors and the actors surprised me with how well they had refined their lines in just one day!

A few first: I went to help with the costumes and was asked to sew the lead child's tunic. I broke the needle (first time I have ever broken a needle), the only needle they had. I whipped two bobby pins out of my hair and pinned up his shirt. This is also the first program I went to where we cut a hole in the side of the church to give the actors a secret entrance.

When the program was over, Pastor Luis preached a "short" sermon (almost an hour, lasting until 9:50) presenting the plan of salvation. I've heard rumors of people snoring, but I think that was just the kids. It was a great sermon.

After the message, we rearranged our seats, and I went to help serve pork, panetón, and hot chocolate. MMMmmm... so good! They bought the whole pig (head to tail). The women were joking around and taking pictures in the kitchen, when Devie said, "People from other countries are going to see these pictures and say what savages the people in Peru are!" (she was pretending to eat the pig's face). It was a fun time that kind of reminded me of the camp kitchen (but maybe that was just serving drinks from a five gallon buckets).

Christmas Eve was filled with laundry, homework, and some Christmas present wrapping. I felt a strange urge to be busy baking, but decided against going to the market as I had heard that it was full of people. We finished cooking our special dinner at 8 pm. We finally ate the baked chicken, hot chocolate, and Panetón at about 10:30. We waited until midnight to exchange gifts, but were interrupted by the sound of a firecrackers. We went out on the balcony to watch for a bit. After opening presents, we went for a walk and visited the cousins. At 2 am Christmas morning, we were walking through an alley eating ice cream sandwiches in our short sleeves. :-)

Christmas day we celebrated with the Gringos (the Stilwell clan met in Chimbote this time). It was a blessing to sing carols in English and have a brief devotional, eat a wonderful dinner of Ceviche and Chicharrón de pescado (fish and fried fish), go to the beach, and play some fun games. Definitely different, but fabulous!

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