Dec 2: Christmas Fireworks

I should share with you a bit about how the others are doing, as I’ve been a little preoccupied with my own ailments.

Kids 'Special' Beds

Ariana, after the one afternoon of bedrest, has been doing quite well. She is still having slightly painful diarreah once a day but is otherwise acting normal. Ciara hasn’t shown a hint of being sick. Nicole has been physically healthy, but tired from the poor sleep and probably the lack of a husband to help her with much.

The funny thing is, the kids don’t seem to have a problem sleeping at night. We don’t know whether this is from being so exhausted the first few nights so they got used to the noise quick, whether their malleable brains have an easier time adapting, or what it is. They haven’t once mentioned the noise when we were putting them to bed despite trying to use many of the other traditional excuses: I’m not tired, I need to pee, I need a drink, I need to tell you something, I need to ask you something, I want to pray again, can you read me another story? Your being to noisy Dad. As if! They would complain about Nicole and I talking but never even mentioned the dogs or motorcycles. Weird. The one exception is when Ariana woke up during the night to use the bathroom she did say the noise was keeping her up, but actually fell asleep right away anyhow. I am amazed at the brains filtering ability again though as I realize that we are able, once asleep, to ignore much of the noise but still wake up to one of our kids crying rather quietly.

In fact the kids love being able to sleep under a mosquito nets. We originally purchased a pink one for Ariana and a green one for Ciara. This gives them their own special place and has made their new bedroom unique for them.

This evening, after a soccer practice, we loaded up into a Taxi with another Canadian living in the Barrio and headed into town for dinner and to see the start of the towns Christmas celebrations. We ate at a little Pizza restaurant with an ambiance barely matched at home. Sitting out in the dark, under an umbrella, enjoying the warm temperature, with our new friend made a night we’ll remember for a while. The pizza was different, but good. The crust was soggier than one would normally like, but didn’t taste it; I’m not sure why. Otherwise the Pizza and toppings were very similar except they added a very light coating of something sweet over the top that left a hint of sweetness with each bite.

At dinner I noticed one of the more discrenable behavioural differences between a “hot” culture person and a “cold” culture. One of our other Barrio neighbors noticed us in the restaurant and stopped in to chat. Near the end of their conversation we asked him if he knew when the celebrations were starting. Although this was all in Spanish his body language clearly indicated he didn’t know, but his answer was as plain as if in English: Nine O’clock. Generally, people from a hot culture want to please you with their answers in preference to giving you a potentially hurtful straight forward answer. They are willing to defer or make up reality in order to do so.

After dinner we were treated to a very good fireworks display and lighting of the Christmas lights. This was the cities kickoff to the Christmas season and they had decorated their office building, and most of the trees in the city square with lights that were all lit to coincide with the fireworks. What made the fireworks unusually good was the immersive aspect. Unlike at home where fireworks are blasted away from the audience, here they were blasted right over top of our heads. We were basically looking straight up and surrounded by the many contrasting sounds and sights of the show. So close in fact that a couple times people had to jump out of the way of a falling ember or other misfired firework. Ariana was tired before the show, but as soon as it started her smile was as wide as her face. Ciara on the other hand, slept through the whole thing! Kids continue to amaze me.

A quick cab home put us back in bed for the quietest night yet. So quiet that we found it a bit eerie in fact. It seemed out of place, as if something must have been wrong. The only thing we could hear were the crickets chirping quietly.