New Years Eve Honduran Style

Oliva made it back from traveling with her sister and father so she was around to kick it for New Years Eve. Charles, Saul and I had talked about going to a bar in town called Bohemios to ring in the New Year. We figured we would make something tasty for dinner (fajitas) and have some drinks at home before going out. I went to town early in the day and bought the things we needed for dinner. On my way I saw 3 scarecrow type dolls in front of people’s houses.

When I got back home I realized that I forgot the bottle of champagne! On my way back into town I saw more and more scarecrows popping up in front of people’s homes. I asked the man at the Pulperia what they were for. Getting him to understand what I was asking was challenging (I don’t know the vocab for scarecrow or stuffed pants and shirt) and when he finally understood what I was talking about he said people have muñecos (dolls) to bring in the New Year and send out the old year. I then asked the taxi driver on my way home more about these muñecos. Apparently you were supposed to make a muñeco to burn at 2am. He said that last year his family made a muneco representing Osama bin Laden. I tried to figure out as much as I could about this tradition and felt like I understood enough about it to participate.

When I got home I called out Olivia and Charles and we made our own muñeco. We decided to create George Bush/He Who Must Not Be Named (Harry Potter villain). We included on the muñeco things we want to see eliminated in the New Year such as war, injustice, corruption, hate, prejudice, etc. We wrote personal things that we were not sad to see gone with 2007 (bad ankle, bad habits, high school). It was great fun to create this muñeco and were getting excited to watch it burn! We put him outside of our gate to hang out until 2008.

An hour or so later Charles went down the road for something and when he came back he saw a handful of kids ripping apart our muñeco! He chased them off but our poor doll was ruined. We weren’t too torn up about it, and didn’t bother to re-create it. The pair of pants we used disappeared, hopefully to some woman who will make good use of them. The newspaper eventually was picked up by the culprits who were just after the firecrackers you are supposed to put inside the muñeco. We didn’t know about this part so the kids found nothing inside. Cheaters never win, right?

Around 11pm we left our house and went to Bohemios. When we got there we were the only people there! The bar tender said they really weren’t open until midnight but served us a drink anyway. A couple more people eventually came into the bar. Between Charles’ phone, the clock on the computer at the bar responsible for the music, and the watch of one of the other patrons we had 3 very different times so we never really knew the exact moment that 2008 engulfed us. We tried to figure it out based on the time when the town experienced the biggest blasts of firecrackers. There were extreme explosions for about 10 solid minutes….so we just hung out in the time warp. Soon after midnight the place started to fill. A couple people we know from town were there. Carlos and I danced the merengue (great, dizzying fun!) and I chatted with Marlon the dental school student for sometime. Charles and I danced to techno music and were the only people in the place who could find the beat. When the raggaeton started we looked like rythymless fools but kept dancing anyway. Olivia and I found ourselves back at home sometime after 4am.

I didn’t leave the house once yesterday which was great. I made Hoppin’ Johns for good luck, just like my mom told me to. I watched some Veronica Mars with Olivia and fell asleep at 7pm. So far 2008 has been totally relaxing….and if this indicates anything it looks like it will be a pretty good year.