Feliz Año Nuevo

I am writing on New Years Day and I am full of images and reflections from the past couple of days. I’m going to describe the events in hopes of giving you a taste of this very special celebration. I spent the last 48 hours with my neighbors preparing for the festivities of my first Año Nuevo in Nicaragua. 

This involved constructing an effigy of El Viejo, the old man, symbolizing 2015. We stuffed old clothes full of newspaper and about 200 firecrackers of various sizes. I drew his face. We pasted it on a plastic milk jug attached to a broom stick and shoved it down his back. As soon as he was done, people started talking to him and about him as though he was a member of the family. 

“He’s very sick. His time has come. He’ll die at midnight.” “Adios great-grandfather. I love you.” “Ay! Mi novio! Just when I find a good boyfriend, he dies.” If you are inclined to contemplate mortality, which I am, Nicaragua is the place to be for New Years!

Next, I used a machete to kill my first chicken, plucked it, and helped make stewed, stuffed chicken.

 For New Years Eve, the whole neighborhood was in the street, eating, visiting, drinking, setting off fireworks, and waiting for midnight. 

About 11:00, the toros came. 

These are cardboard constructions, roughly in the shape of a bull, that are intricately load with fireworks. Young men get inside the contraptions and chase crowds of people up and down the block with rockets and explosions going off in every direction. It is thrilling and there is clearly real danger. Everyone has a story of a cousin who got burned. (I've yet to take a picture or a video that adequately captures the excitement of this tradition.)

There was lots of loud music, a piñata, more food than you could eat, more Flor De Caña than you should drink, and great friendship. 

At midnight, we sat El Viejo in the middle of the street, lit him on fire, and sent him (and 2015) to heaven in a blaze of glory. I went to bed about 2:00 AM, but the party kept going. I fell asleep feeling very grateful that I’m where I am doing what I’m doing.

Here comes the moral of the story. I want to share a journal entry with you: 

What has 2015 taught me? Impatience, anger, frustration, and boredom are choices. I choose them when I don’t accept things as they are, but instead give my attention to wishing for something different… In Nicaragua I am learning to say to myself, this is not the experience I was planning on having, but it is the experience I am having. Everyday is an adventure.