Ano Nuevo/New Years

Just as strange as it was to spend my first Christmas away from home, it was equally as weird to spend New Years away from my friends.

New Years Eve day on the ranch was spent playing mini-Olimpiadas. Basically, it was a mini version of the grand Olimpiadas that took place in August. We played games such as:

Knocking over a tower of blocks by kicking a soccer ball
A relay race on a slip n slide
Cebollitas/Little Onions -- one person hangs onto a pole, another person hangs onto that person, another person hangs onto that person, etc. Team members from opposing teams try to pull the ‘layers of the onion’ apart until all team members are pulled off the pole.
Crossword puzzle race
Put a pencil into a bottle using a string and your mouth
Blindfolded race following a string in the woods. It was a fun day. Afterwards, we all headed home to shower, nap, and rest up before the big New Years celebration. From what I had been told, this is one of the biggest parties of the year. The kids wear their new estrenos/outfits and there is a dance, which goes until 3:00am. However, it is tradition that the volunteers only hang out until 1:00am. At this time we all return to Casa Personal to have our own party.

In keeping with my Cuban traditions, I made little baggies of 12 grapes for each of the girls in my hogar. For those of you with whom I have shared New Years, you know that it is a tradition of my family to eat 12 grapes when the clock strikes midnight; one grape for each month of the new year. Twelve grapes each, for 32 girls…that’s a lot of grapes! I gave the grapes out around dinner time because I knew we’d all be all over the place when the clock struck 12. I should have known that many of the girls would not wait until midnight, and many of them ate their grapes right away. Oh well.

We had a misa/mass in the evening and then all the hogars had dinner together in el rancho/girls side. Afterwards, it was time to party! We headed down to talleres/workshops, where there was a d.j., disco lights, a five-story fogata/bonfire, and lots and lots of fireworks. This was one Honduran tradition I was not prepared for. Little five-year-old kids were running around with sparklers and setting off fireworks. Older kids rigged up helmets that were filled with fireworks, and they ran around with fireworks shooting out of their heads. When it was midnight, they set of a muneca/doll; or in other words a pinata filled with fireworks. This muneca is said to represent the old year. This is when things got freaky. They set the pinata up right by the mega bonfire. So, all the kids gathered around nearby to watch the fireworks display. When the pinata went off, the kids started scrambling away from it because it was so seriously huge. However, the only escape route headed towards the gigantic bonfire not that many feet away. So, there was this huge scrambling, screaming commotion of kids, adults, volunteers running all over the place; meanwhile all of this being consumed in a gulf of smoke and flames. According to visiting ex-volunteers this is typical on the ranch for New Years. But I was freaked out! I felt like I was watching Real TV: “New Years Party at an Orphanage Gone Wrong!” It was out of control. We danced, ate our grapes, and hung out until 1:00 or so, and then we headed back to Casa Personal to start the real party…haha.
It was a great party, one of the best I have to admit. We had an iPod battle, lots of snack food, drinks, and dancing. It was fun to party with all the visiting ex-volunteers and Jesus’ friends from Chicago. We stayed up until 6:30 in the morning having a great time. The next day we spent recovering in a great way. We slept till about noon. We made a delicious breakfast of eggs and home fries. And then, we bummed out and watched Laguna Beach on DVD all afternoon. It reminded me of spending days recovering with my friends at home eating junk food and watching TV and being bums. It was great!