Finally, another blog post

Hello, and I am soo sorry that it's been over a month since my last post. Wow, so there are a plethora of blog topics to write about.. but since we are in the Holiday season (I can't believe it is almost 2010) I will talk about Thanksgiving (TURKEY DAY) with the embassy families and the "Purisimas" or the festivities that the Roman Catholics particpate to recognize the Immaculate Conception of Mary, a holy day in the Catholic Church.

Before I go any further I posted a few photos of the "purisimas" or "shrines/altars" that people make as devotional acts to Mary the mother of God and if you are Catholic, the mother of us all through her son Jesus Christ. The website for these photos is

http://picasaweb.google.com/nick.halbert

Bueno, first I will talk about Thanksgiving. Part of being a Peace Corps Volunteer brings a benefit that throughout the year we volunteers are able to have relations and are invited to events through the US embassy office, which is in Managua. For Thanksgiving a number of various Foreign Service workers and their families extend invitations to host anywhere from 1 PCV to as many as 30 PCVs in their home to bring the American tradition of Thanksgiving to the PCVs as they are serving their tour in whichever foreign country they are in. 19 other Nicaragua PCVs and I were invited to enjoy Turkey day with the deputy embassador from the United States to Nicaragua, Richard Sanders. He has a beautiful house with a pool (which we did not have time nor the desire to swim in - it didn't help that we all stuffed ourselves to the gills with turkey and all the fixings). We all enjoyed great conversation and food with Mr. Sanders and talked about the political situation in Nicaragua and the diplomatic relations with the U.S. We ate the traditional Turkey day meal with Turkey, mashed potatoes, gravy, cranberry sauce, green beans, sage stuffing, pumpkin pie, with additional non-traditional fair of meatloaf, eggplant casserole for those die hard vegetarians.. and much much more.

Okay, well I hope you folks did not salivate too much with the last description. Now, we will move on with my visit to beautiful Leon, Nicaragua. Leon has at least 4 beautiful Catholic Churches with Colonial architecture found throughout the city. You can see pictures of a few of the churches through the link posted above. For nine days from the 1st Sunday of Advent through the Holy day of the Immaculate Conception of Mary, all Nicaraguans celebrate and devote time in prayer to the conception of Jesus Christ. On the night before the Immaculate Conception of Mary, many Nicaraguans go out house to house yelling (Griteria, is what the custom is called in spanish) "Quien Causa Tanta Alegria? (who causes so much happiness?) and the person in the house responds "La Concecpion de Maria" (the conception of Mary). Then the person in the house hands out candy, salt, sugar, plastic pans or whatever seems to be useful for Nicaraguans in their everyday lives. This tradition is very much like the tradition of Halloween in the United Sates, where people go door to door with large bags or sacks yelling out the question who causes soo much happiness instead of yelling out Trick or Treat. I participated in this tradition with a Nicaraguan friend from my site who has family in Leon. I received many things such as sugar, coffee, a flute or recorder made of bamboo, a doll, candy, gum, and many boxes of matches. They also handed out a baked good called "Gofio" sort of like a pastry that contains corn ground up into a flour, with sugar, honey.. .and is baked... I enjoyed this tasty little snack as I moved from door to door, questioning who causes soo much happiness.

This is all for this post. I will be going home to the States for Xmas and New Year's.. I am very excited to have hot running water for bathing and to see my parents and friends!