The two day Christmas diary…Christmas Eve:
The 24th of December began by getting up early and waiting for the man to arrive to repair our fridge, yes the fridge blew up; or rather the thermostat blew up. He was supposed to arrive at 8.00 a.m., by 5.00 p.m. we were reliably informed that he will appear at 8.00 a.m. Christmas Day. I will wait and see and in the meantime my diet takes on a completely new meaning – no food of any description! Happy Christmas!
10.00 a.m. Mick and I decided to go and shop in Metro for essential supplies for Christmas Day at the Columban Centre House. It would not be too difficult to guess the nature of the ‘essential supplies’. Yesterday morning shopping at Metro was an experience, all fifty-five checkouts were operational and there were queues at each. Slow queues at each!
12.30 p.m. We were invited to a very pleasant lunch at the presbytery with the two priests Mick and Napa and also Nancy, the housekeeper.
2.30 p.m. Wander back to our house through the local market. Today some of the people had set up makeshift enclosures and were selling live pigs and turkeys for Christmas. At least they were ‘fresher’ than the meat hanging all around.
The pre-Christmas fireworks had started early and every now and then you were startled by some exploding rocket or bunger. I have been told that they are supposed to be illegal; believe me that seems to make little or no difference in this part of Lima. I would have also thought that they would be too expensive for the people but I have been assured they are quite cheap to purchase.
4.00 p.m. The computer comes into play and Skype to Australia is worked overtime. We both had long Christmas chats to Simon and Kate in Mildura, Kate and Dale down Gippsland way and my brothers in and around Melbourne.
8.00 p.m. We head off to Santa Rosa Capilla for our 9.00 p.m. Christmas Mass. It was already crowded when we arrived. People had brought figurines of Jesus from their Christmas cribs to be placed in front of the altar and blessed with water after Mass. Some even bring the entire crib scene. As long as I live I do not think I will ever see as many statues of baby Jesus as I saw last night! A veritable maternity ward. They were all shapes, sizes and colours, and mostly beautifully dressed in silken outfits, obviously lovingly sewn for the occasion.
The parishioners had also erected a massive crib in the Capilla and during Mass a family came forward and placed the figure of Jesus in the manger. Another very interesting tradition is that each year you place a new animal in the crib. That may be the reason why some constructions are so large.
The Mass was temporarily halted twice when the power failed. Nevertheless, Marion was very fortunate that she had left the batteries in the keyboard so the music continued to flow.
10.30 p.m. Make our way back home through the continued bombardment of fireworks and head off to bed. Not so the locals, they went home to open the champagne, eat Christmas panettone and sit down to the full Christmas meal at midnight! They wondered what was wrong with us; we assured them nothing apart from our age!
Midnight and it all began in earnest. The noise was unbelievable, I did not know they made exploding rockets and bungers so big and powerful. And I also did not know that they had purchased so many of the things.
At least I felt very safe in our house of concrete and steel, a stray rocket could not cause too much fire damage and a giant bunger would not even rattle the foundations!
Christmas Day:
6.00 a.m. Check the emails, await for further Skype calls and hope that the fridge repair man arrives! The fireworks continue, however, only on an intermittent basis. They must be running very low on supplies after last night. Over our breakfast coffee I discover that Marion heard very little of the fun and games last night, I couldn’t believe it!
8.50 a.m. Pedro, the repair man, arrives with a plastic supermarket bag full of tools to work on the fridge.
10.00 a.m. Off to the Columban Centre House for Christmas Day.
10.15 a.m. First stop is to bless a brand new motor taxi.
12.30 p.m. Drinks before the Christmas meal as the crowd gathers.
1.30 p.m. A delightful Christmas meal is served – turkey and ham with all the normal veggies and trimmings followed by a fantastic Christmas pudding, Pavlova and ice cream.It was a great day and we stayed the night in one of the cabins.
The gardens of the Columban Centre House proved to be an idyllic setting for the celebrations. Can you imagine the joy to be able to kick off your sandals and walk bare footed on grass? A great feeling.
Is my bike better than your scooter? Sharing and comparing presents has to be the same the whole world over.
