Bolivian Christmas Traditions

It's hard to believe that this is our second Christmas in Bolivia.  We are slowing learning all about the Bolivian Christmas traditions, some of which are similar to our's in the US, and some very different.

One interesting tradition is the gifting of the canasta or basket from the employer to the employee.  It doesn't matter where you work, this is an expected practice among all Bolivians.  These baskets typically have staple food items, like flour, sugar and rice, as well as special Christmas items, like Christmas bread, cookies, and candies.

This Christmas, we not only were the recipients of a canasta from FH, but also had an opportunity to give a canasta.  With Jennie being pregnant we hired a Bolivian woman named Ciria to help with things around the house.  Ciria comes 4 hours a week to help with some cleaning and most importantly she walks to the market, purchases our produce, and brings it home for us.  Making weekly market trips over the past few months has been nearly impossible, so the help of Ciria has been a welcomed blessing.    Not only has Ciria's help been a blessing to our family, we are also happy to be able to give her the opportunity for employment.  Ciria is a single mother of 2 kids and works very hard (3 jobs total) to support them.    Putting a canasta together for her was fun for us to do.  Since we have gotten to know her and her children over the past few months, we enjoyed finding special items for each of them.