Tis the Season

At 5:00 a.m, on December 15, a truck with large speakers mounted on the back, slowly drove through the streets of Jarabacoa broadcasting Christmas music and Christmas greetings from the mayor. You could almost feel the Christmas spirit settle down over the city. The holidays had officially begun.

It is tradition to have a large meal and a family gathering on Noche Buena (Christmas Eve). During the several days before Noche Buena, the city is busy as everyone purchases supplies for the dinner. Usually the menu consists of roasted pork, yucca, a special Christmas bread, potato salad, a vegetable salad, etc. On the twenty-fourth, I took this picture of hogs being roasted on a street corner to be sold by the pound for dinner that evening.

Earlier in December we had our Students International staff and workers Christmas dinner. After the dinner, we had a drawing for the roasted pig heads, a delicacy here. Anyely, a teacher at one of our S.I. preschools was the proud winner of one of them.