Nomad JuanCa's Report

Mmmm... it is 10.22am and i have about 22 min of being awake.. damn.. even though it is holiday my body can't sleep until midday anymore. :(

Well yesterday was the last day of 2006 and today is the first of 2007. It was a good night, but different to others... it was calmed, not much preparation, not much celebration either, not much drinks, just my mother and me and later on arrived my sister and her family. I had to work until 7pm then i went back home bringing some chicken for us (mom and me) to eat, we were chatting.. something we don't do quite often... and suddenly.... it all came to a point... the days when my mother was young and how hard times she had with her family, the way they threated her, all those troubles she had when she was teenager. It's not a new story to me, we have heard it many times and know it is true... i was just thinking... why? why to mention it, to remember it today... why?

And i got my answer, we all of us in a period of our live, turn around and look back, sometimes we find lot of achievements, we find lot of funny moments, but also find those hard times that marked us foreverer.... and sometimes we find out pain... lot of pain. I listenned to my mother cause i knew she wanted to tell me something, and i found out myself thinking about how would i be when i would be over 50. I think i will turn around and might find less pain... and it is thank of her. While she talked, she mentioned me she still saves a letter written by one of my uncles where they say she is not her sister anymore, it was afterwards she decided to scape and marry my father... she even mentioned she had a the original of it plus 3 copies. I told her why to keep all that, i mean... it was long time ago, sometimes... we have to let go the pain, it is the only way to find a cure. Hope she follows my advice.

So the lesson is.. never keep pain inside your heart, let it go.

After midnight, we went visiting neighbors and giving them good wishes for the next year (something very traditional) we ate turkey, pork... that's the good thing of new year and christmas.. everybody cooks mmmm!! I also discovered something... all the people we go visiting.. are my mother's/sister's friends... not mine. I tink it is something i have to change, i should get more interested in my neighbors. We cannot pass through life without get involved with the people around us.

Well apart from all that, here some pics of the main tradition here in Ecuador for new year, the burning of "old year" figures. Made of wood or anything that can be burned, we build every year someone or something to be burned, with the hope that after burning the bad things from the past year will disappear.

By the way some of the things i discovered during christmas is that there is a specific occupation i would like to try at least once in my life....This one...

Don't you think it is cool? i mean one can give so much happiness to people while just playing like a nice cartoon. I have seen so many kids happy because of these two guys that i really envy their job during this season... i would like to have one day the chance of dress like a nice polar bear and take pictures with kids and make their day.... after all few of us have the precious gift of making other's happy everyday.

Well, that's all for now, later on i will come back with my new year resolutions, i haven't think about them yet ;). Happy New Year everybody!!!