Machismo? No thank you!

OK! So I will admit.... Christmas here in my site wasn't TOO bad. It was different. And although I would have much rather had a more American style Christmas, I am still glad that I was able to be here in my site for this one. Definitely has helped gain a little more confianza. So here in The Savior they don't celebrate Xmas on the 25th like Americans do... they do their big shabang on the 24th. In my site there was no formal exchanging of gifts- to celebrate they just get together and eat a lot and give the kids fireworks to play with... usually without supervision. That sounds like a bad idea doesn't it? When I was concerned for a 7 year old that burned his hand and I was trying to help him, he looked at me and told me I should put a firwork in my chichis (boobs)... EXCUSE ME! Little butthead. I called him mal educado and scolded him for talking to me like that. The womanizing starts young around here.

But anyway- so my 24th- I went to my 12 year old neighbor's birthday party. It was cute. They had a very good mariachi band that was actually from Santa Clara, my first training community. At the party most people just sat their and stared at the band- while this one bolo was the only one dancing... he was so drunk that he knocked over the drumset a few times when dancing a little to close to the band. He was ridiculous- and when I wouldn't talk to him he got mad and made an announcement to all the people at the party about me. I didn't quite understand what he said but it was something like "Listen up everyone, we have someone here today that is NOT from this country..." I wish I could have understood more of what he said. But i dont speak bolo. They also had hired people to film and take pictures at the party. So this one guy was walking around the whole time with the video camera.... and he would come and put it in front of my face and just leave it there while I was eating. A little awkward. Especially when he would move it down to get the sandwhich in the shot... although I'm pretty sure it wasn't just the sandwhich he was trying to get. Bah. I was eating Pan Relleno....it was my first one. Basically a huge chicken sandwhich that is traditional xmas time food. It was good, but I wasn't super impressed. I ate the whole thing though and was pretty full. Forgetting I had made plans to go eat more Pan Relleno at my neighbor Alicia's house later that night. I still went and ate her's too... and WOW! Her's was amazing! She had yummy sauces and repollo, which was a creamy cabbage mix. I went over there and hung out until 10... it was nice. She's a nice lady. Her 10 year old daughter Ena and I are good buddies.

So that was my uneventful Christmas... Then yesterday the 25th I spent the morning cleaning my house up. I don't deep clean it enough. I found some scary looking animales hidden behind stuff in the corners. Spiders scorpions and some very scary worm like thing with tons of legs and pinchy looking things on its head. EEK! This is why women spend all morning every morning haciendo limpieza. Because if they don't you end up with a lot of unwanted visitors.

By the time I was done killing all of my bad roommates, I was ready to take my bucket bath. So I went over to the house... then saw that my bucket I use for bathing was filled with raw meat! Now i don't know if I ever want to use that bucket again. I probably will though, it should clean up ok. And a little raw beef on your body can't harm you. I ate the carne asada for lunch though, it was good and totally worth not taking a bath for.

So by noonish my house and front yard was swarming with people and the Ranchera music was blasting. This rodeo is kinda legit. But a bit much to have in your front yard. Luckily I got in for free :) I should anyway... it's at my house! There was this host guy who kind of leads the show and walks around with the microphone talking about what's happening the whole time, usually with a beer in his hand. I thought it was pretty funny when he was leading the crowd in prayer with a Pilsener in his hand... Especially when about an hour earlier he said to the Muchachos of the rodeo, "Muchachos- here you can dance, you can drink and you can chingar (F***) and your woman can't say anything. You are safe here. Here we are the rulers, muchachos!" That made me want to puke. AGH! That is not ok.... Frikin machismo. I hate it.

And then at one point they tried to get me to go dance with the bolos in the ring- thank god that didn't happen. I love to dance- but I forget how wildly inappropriate people can be in public here sometimes. I'm used to Rodeos being more PG family affairs. I did dance a little at the end of the night though...And even though I kept my distance from the guy- plenty of space between us and I dancing conservatively- I am sure that still got people talking. But whatever... it was just dancing. Thank goodness my girlfriends are coming today!

To take a bath last night I had to go to my neighbor's house, where Milton lives. I cut my arm up on the barbed wire just trying to get through their gate. My hands were kind of full, so that made it harder. When I was over there I met the 24 year old boyfriend of Antonia, Milton's 13 year old 8th grade sister. It makes me sad... because she's such a sweet, smart girl with so much potential... and it's likely she is very close to giving up her future by dating an older man like that.

Sorry, I'm not painting a very pretty picture of this place today am I? But i'm not exaggerating or making thing up. I just tell it like I see it. Do I sound like I am being judgemental? Am I being too hard on these people?

It's just.... these cultural differences are so in my face all time. I doubt that I will ever stop noticing them.

Ok! I'm going to get myself out of the house and be social!

Paz y Amor.

P.S. Milton is slowly getting better. The other night I went to hang out with him and I showed him how to make shadow animals with a flashlight in the dark. He liked that. Oh Milton. Please don't grow up to be a machisto.