The Tuesday after Thanksgiving was our Christmas party with the health center employees. We were lucky in that we got the two best people we could have possibly picked to buy presents for; that is the nurse who works in our village whose brother is our language instructor, and our host-sister, Reina. We bought our presents in Huehue, and other than that we were pretty clueless about what to expect.

We arrived at the health center as the party should have been starting, so in typical Guatemalan fashion, it was pretty far from being ready. However, they had a huge tree erected in front of the center, which was a fun surprise. Turns out because of deforestation problems chopping down whole trees is not allowed here, so they have some sort of cone support they put up and cover with pine branches they cut individually. It makes the trees look amazingly full and festive, and someone can use the branches for firewood later. The woman who cleans the health center had the place smelling delicious from the moment we walked in. She must have been cooking all morning long. The doctors lit a barbecue outside and grilled what was one of the best meals we’ve had since we arrived here in Guatemala. Some of you might be wondering why we had our Christmas party on December 2, pretty early. I was wondering the same thing until we were informed that the head doctor is leaving, and they wanted to include him.

I was really surprised and disappointed when I heard the news. This guy is super quiet, but once we got to really talk to him we found out he’s great and we really like him. He has been really dedicated to his job here, which is unfortunately hard to find in some doctors sent to rural areas. He told me when we first got here that he wanted to do an in-depth study on the maternal mortality problem in our area. So why was he leaving? I shouldn’t have, but I assumed it was because in reality he was only as dedicated as the average ladino Guatemalan doctor in a rural indigenous area, which is to say, not very. I was very glad to be proven wrong. What really happened is he won a 3 year scholarship to study for his OB/GYN specializacion, and he would like to come back to continue supporting our community after that’s done. Too bad he won’t be back while we’re here. A lot of the employees gave speeches about how sad they were to see him go, but he motivated a lot of people, so hopefully his presence will have a lasting effect on the center as a whole.

So there we were celebrating Christmas a little early, and there was much hilarity involved. We had to do a guessing game, naming characteristics of the person we bought for before we handed them their gift. The health center secretary was naming things and when he said, “and this person has blue eyes…” everyone said, “Emily! Emily!” and I thought, nu uh, my eyes are green. Reina and Lucia had paid enough attention in the last few months to shout, “Jaime! Jaime!” Luin, was indeed Fletch’s “amigo secreto” who just happened to buy him the traditional sombrero and neck tie to go with the capishay he was wearing that day. It was the perfect garmet for the cold and rainy day, plus whenever he wears people just can’t stop laughing at the big, funny gringo in their capishay. The woman in charge of the cleaning was my amigo secreto, and she cleared the air by saying, “and she has green eyes”. At first I wondered if maybe they couldn’t tell the difference. We just found out today that people here do not distinguish between mine and Fletch’s hair colors. To the average American there’s a pretty big difference, but in Guatemala there’s black hair and there’s not black hair. I received a nice tipico bag. Anything they describe as tipico here means made from traditional fabrics or woven patterns. Fletch bought the nurse a little hand held radio to take on her long walks through villages giving vaccinations to kids–that’s right, the kids don’t come into the health center, the nurses go out and find the kids. And I bought Reina a fun pair of earrings and a bracelet. Everyone was happy, and stuffed by the time the party was over.

Since we had no idea what this party would entail when it began, because people here almost always leave out the details of everything, and we didn’t know the doctor was leaving until just before the party, we went back in yesterday, his last day of work, to send him off with a chocolate cake. People are always very happy when we bake things.

Christmas lights are going up all over Temux. Our host family constructed a tree like the one at the health center and strung it with lights today. I keep hearing marimba Christmas music which, let’s face it, is just kind of weird, and the funniest part is all of the most popular Christmas songs are in English, and pretty much none of them are translated, so people here know the tunes and no one has a clue as to what the songs are saying. I find that funny in a ridiculous sort of way. Oh…and we burned effigies of the devil on Sunday night. Yup. You see the Virgin of Guadalupe has her festival this week, so each family burns the devil at their house to clear her path of evil. They make a scarecrow like figure and ring it with fireworks, and pour paint thinner or gasoline or whatever kind of handy flammable liquid they’ve got around on the effigy and set it aflame. Lots of craziness, completely unsafe, little kids and random exploding fireworks shooting off in all directions. All I know is All Saints never did anything that exciting for the V of G. My past life was so boring…..