New Years Fiestas in Ciudad Sandino

Ahhh, 2009 has come to greet me in Nicaragua, it will definitely be a New Years to remember for years to come. I celebrated with the Cano Family in Ciudad Sandino, just outside of Managua. It's a bigger city than Somoto, but dirt roads are very common in the center of town meaning it's not quite as developed as Ocotal or Esteli which are cities near me in the north. The celebration started around 7pm with a dinner at Fatima's house, a family friend in town. Dinner was supposed to be served at 7:30pm, but we didn't have it till almost 10pm! I was starving, even though I had cooked lasagna for the Canos for lunch around 2pm. I was a good guest and brought a bottle of 7 yr. old Flor de Cana rum and it was probably gone within 40 min. The Nicas I was with definitely like to party hard! The kids and I were kind of bored and we danced a little bit, the adults were dancing like crazy and finding their inner-childhood I guess.

After Fatima's we went over to Amelia's sister's house on the other side of town to continue the merriment and dancing. I was taking in the scene and was in a more pensive state rather than a wild party mood. The reggaeton or bachata music was up loud in EVERY household, fireworks (the bottle rocket, cherry bomb type, aka bomb sounding ones) are going off right and left, hanging from the trees are pinatas and scarecrows. The scarecrows were the representation of the "old year" and they are stuffed with firecrackers and gasoline. At midnight, the old men are burned to signify the ending of the old year. I was looking around the entire time for a house fire to start, but I guess that wouldn't be possible with a tin roof and a concrete structure, right?

I was bored around 11pm, so I bought the kids some fireworks and we lit off sparklers and little fireworks. The entire celebration made up for not having 4th of July fireworks this year. We danced until 3:30am and finally the kids convinced Freddy and Amelia to go home. They didn't want to leave! For my first New Year's away from home, it was a blast!

Vera takes her turn at the piñata, it surprisingly lasted longer than 5 min and I think about 10 kids got to hit it. That's a record!

This is probably my favorite picture of me in Nica! Who would turn down a super-sized roman candle and a Toña?

The firework that cost me 4 Cords or 20 cents.

Dayana, even at 14 years of age, loved the fireworks! I thought she might be too cool for them...but I was wrong!

I'm not sure what kind of look this is, but it's funny.

The kids had nothing to do! A pack of sparklers was less than a dollar, I had to buy some. Turned out to be a great idea and everyone had alot of fun with them!

Vera wrote me down as one of her friends in her new "Me and My Friends" book I gave her for Christmas. How cute is that?

Really cute fluffy cat named Sam...who I later found out died 2 days later from eating a poisoned rat...sadness!

Hombre Viejo (The old man) who represents the old year...he was burned!

Freddy Jr. and I at one of the Cano's friends' house.

Dancing the night away with Allan, a family friend and high school teacher.

The Cano Family: Amelia, Freddy Jr. Dayana, Don Freddy, Vera

Dayana didn't smile in this picture :(

Freddy Jr. and I

The Cano family's cat Deborah gets a bath from Vera...she wasn't very happy.

The following pictures are ones from various parties in which I was paraded off as the "white" relative of the family. They were very proud to show me off! I met about 30 family members and probably 40 family friends and was invited to a whole bunch of celebrations throughout the year. I'm so happy no one asked me to be the godmother of their child, though I heard through the grapevine that one of the cousins was going to ask me. That would be nice, but problematic since the godparents are the ones who "spoil" the kids...I don't think that would be a good role for me to take on. I see disappointment in the future with accepting a title like that!

A family get together at a neighbor's house on the 30th of Dec.

Me writing thank you notes, which should be getting to everyone in a couple of weeks. I need to bring a rocking chair back with me to the states!

Alejandra, the birthday girl and Vera's godsister, who's party was on the 2nd of January.

I drug Allan's son Jorge out on the dancefloor...I swear he was happier than he looks in this picture!

Give a group of Nicas a can of Pringles and they can be entertained for hours! The following pictures are what happened when I showed them how two Pringles can make a duck beak...which I can not be credited for originality, it was the Pringles commerical when we were kids that showed us how to do it. After demonstrating the Pringle duck, there was humorous quacking that lasted for about 2 hours at a birthday party!

Fatima, a family friend, was the first one to find it hilarious...then everyone else followed suit.

Allan's new name is Donald Duck

Here Amelia was portraying Daisy Duck

The mother of Donald Duck

Dayana had no shame to show off her bill as well.