US, US, baby

So when I e-mailed my sister yesterday, I realized Easter is the last major holiday I’m missing away from the States.

When I talked to my family earlier that day, I also remembered how zany my family is (and found out one of you has been telling my mom about the pickpocketing…). So, yeah, I have to say, I promised my sis I wouldn’t leave her alone for family holidays for an entire year again.

And since I have no Easter pics, here’s another pic of a penguin in South Africa.

Random? Yes. But that’s me.

Just imagine he/she is telling you “Happy belated Easter.”

Monday I was filling out papers and I asked the German girl living at the same place what date it was. “The 17th,” came her response.

“What??? It’s St. Patrick’s Day today and I totally forgot?” I couldn’t believe that I not only forgot but I also did absolutely nothing. This was the first St. Patty’s day in nearly a decade where I was without a big parade, green beer, or my “Everyone loves an Irish girl” shirt. Seriously, this was one day that post-college has continued its college-day revelry. I mean, twice I purposefully spent it in NYC (and once even planned the flight so I could spend part of it in NYC and the other in LA) and once even got to spend it with an Irish Patrick come back to visit his LA pals.

But here in South Africa. Nothing. And when I couldn’t get over my surprise, the German girl asks me, “What’s St. Patrick’s Day?” Huh? My mouth stood agape as I tried to think of how to explain it.

“You seriously don’t know?”

Her response: “Well, I’m not very religious…”

Hmmm…never thought of the “St.” in “St. Patrick’s Day” giving it such a religious feel…

I think this might be a Muslim Barbie on these suitcases in Doha, Qatar. Or maybe is it a Muslim Skipper? It’s really been a long time since I played with the blond plastic dolls…

But those are definitely Bambi.

In the village, I went with the family to a church service. When the other church goers filed out, we sat in the newspaper-wallpapered mud house talking with the pastor and a few others. I picked up a song book that the nephew had brought with him and was floored to see “If I were a butterfly, I’d thank you, Lord, for giving me wings” on the first page I opened the book to.

That line is the first in a children’s song I sang in the small Methodist church I grew up in. It’s one of those songs that as a child, I thought only we sang…and was surprised to find others at church camp who knew it. Then, when I moved to LA as an adult, I was even more surprised to find out my roommate who grew up in Detroit, Michigan also sang that song growing up. But, you know, we were all Methodists from the Midwest, so I guess now I can see that it’s not THAT surprising.

But seeing it in an English/Hindi/Assamese/Bodo songbook in a village in remote India — where I can safely say nobody is fluent in English — was definitely the biggest shock of all. This is missionaries at work, people.

Almost forgot that the New Year’s Eve concert featured an American band.

Difference United performed as (I think) the third band of the night. During their performance, something about them made me think they must be a Christian rock group. I think it was the facts that the lead singer had a bit of a Southern twang, I’d never heard of them, and they had these really bad dancers wearing white tees and red track pants…doing a kind of hyped-up version of the “signing” hand dances popular in mega-churches in the ’90s (if you don’t know what I’m talking about, there’s a scene in Napolean Dynamite where Napolean is performing one of these dances with some girls).

The band’s myspace.com page confirmed the group’s Christian roots, which is probably why they came to uber-Christian North East in the first place. Sometimes it’s so weird being in a place that’s more Christian than the Bible belt I grew up in.

I have to say, before this year, I never really realized how important Christmas was to me. I suppose I’d always taken for granted the time I had with friends and family during the season. And even though I thought the actual celebration of Christmas held little sentiments for me, I still found myself wiping away steaming hot tears as I sang along to “O, Holy Night” at an outdoor Christmas Eve sing-a-long.

As the night was only the second time I can recall crying in the past year or so (viewing cheesey movies exempted), I realized, that, yeah, Christmas is important to me. And that I don’t think I’ll want to be away from my loved ones in MO come Christmas again…

Side note…at the Christmas Day service I went to, I learned that “Away in the Manger” has two melodies. The Brits have one version, and the Yanks another. The church I was at chose the better one, of course.

(And I didn’t take any Christmas photos…so the above pic is a nice little holiday greeting from Elvis…taken at Graceland during my Christmas break last year.)

So as the Hindus were wrapping up their Diwali Festival, one of the local church grounds held its own festival: The Wine Festival (gotta love the Catholics!).

It’s a one-day event each year where local winemakers come and sell their whole lot of stock. Reading about it in the paper, I was stoked to go…not only is wine/alcohol not so popular in India (as many Hindus apparently think of it as a no-no), thus I knew there would be few other wine festivals in this country, but I thought it would be a great way to support the local peeps as well.

Although the for-sale wines were what some might argue (people in the EU right now are) aren’t actually wines…by that I mean, they’re not made of grapes, I was still super excited to try them. The paper announcement said there’d be berry wines, including strawberry ones. Why was that exciting to me? Well, because ever since I heard Deana Carter’s “Strawberry Wine,” I’ve been wanting to try some. However, I doubted anyone else at the festival would make that country-song connection, but…

The festival kicked off at the church around noon. My desk at the time was right by the window, and I could hear it start up…music was blaring away. The strange thing was…I KNEW the songs. Like uncannily well. They were playing Bryan White’s “Someone Else’s Star.” For those who don’t know it, it’s a song from a 90s country album made by an almost-mullet-wearing kid. Then came Credence Clearwater Revival. When I said something to one of the girls in the office, she said that country music was really popular here. Particularly Bonnie Raitt and John Denver. What??? SO not what I expected from India…even the Christian part!

But back to the wine…a few of us went over to peruse the selection. Most of the local wines were made from a blackberry. But there were also ones made of strawberry, ginger, pineapple, banana, pear, and just about any other fruit you’d find in the North East.

They were all these mom-and-pop kind of operations, but it was great fun talking to the vendors as well. When the young woman at the “Mummy’s” stall was asked why their wine was so cheap compared to the other ones on sale, she said, “It’s just homemade stuff. I mean, it comes from the pears in our backyard!”

But backyard or not…I still bought a couple of the small bottles. God bless the Christian festivals.

OK, so I have to admit, I didn’t take a huge variety of pictures of the festival…but how about a video? It’s short (about 15 seconds) and unedited, but it can give you a pretty good feel of the decorations at Police Bazaar that night. (And I promise lots of pics of later festivals!)

BUT…here’s a picture of the pizza I had that night. Although it’s quite unlike any pizza I’ve had before (and not just in America, either) — think lots of crust and not a lot of sauce — it’s the closest I’ve come to at-a-restaurant Western food since I’ve been in India. Now THAT is something to celebrate!

One thing I’ve quickly learned about Shillong is that there is a festival, celebration, or holiday just about every week. This is pretty much due to the city’s multi-cultural/ethnic/religious backdrop.

Last week was the Diwali Festival. And it’s a festival that does not happen quietly. For three nights, there was really no chance of getting much sleep as revelers blasted not only fireworks, but also firecrackers, long into the night.

On the night with the loudest firecrackers, I took off from the office early and headed into the center of the city to see what all the festivities were about. Normally a bit dark, there was no darkness this time. Shops were strewn with strands of light, glowing with clay-pot lanterns, and adorned with trees and flowers. After snapping a few pictures, I somehow ended up in a bookstore (I’m a bookworm, I know) and wound up talking to the owner for quite a while. When I left, I asked him if he would be heading out to celebrate or watch the festivities going on right outside his door. He replied, “No. This is not our holiday. This is the Hindus from Mumbai celebrating. We, we’re more like the US and China. We don’t celebrate this.”

The owner was Khasi, the main tribe here in Shillong, which means he’s most likely Christian. Although, I knew there were many differences in the people here in Shillong, I guess I kind of assumed they were a bit more integrated…I mean in the US, we use every other country’s holiday as an excuse to celebrate (Cinco de Mayo? Margaritas! St. Patricks’ Day? Green beer! Mardi Gras? Whatever’s cheap!) or sell our goods. And you know, in the US, pretty much everyone does something for Christmas…I found out this past year, that it’s one of the most popular vacation times for Jewish families. So hearing his comment has made me start looking a bit more closely at the society here.

Just how much like the US is it? Well…you’ll just have to wait for a few more posts, and then you can judge for yourself.

1. Sweet Potato Pie and I…

Whoops! Wrong South!

But even though there’s no Mason-Dixon line here, there is the Ben Hai River that separated the North and South back in the day. And like you’ve known you’ve crossed into the previously separated South in the US, you definitely know you’ve crossed into the old South here, as well. How?

1. There’s a bit of Southern hospitality. At first, you’ll probably think it is just the whole being an American in Hanoi thing…but no, people just get friendlier the further South you go. Two Austrian students on today’s train confirmed it’s not just your imagination. They are nicer the closer to the equator you are here.

2. There are definitely more churches and temples.

3. Shopkeepers talk about their family in the US when you tell them where you’re from.

4. Other shopkeepers talk about how great the American doctors are who have come here to volunteer and help the locals.

5. You can visit a friend’s grandma’s house, a house that was renovated by your friend’s mom’s American GI fiancee back in the day.

6. You see “U.S.Army” stickers not just stuck up amongst other stickers representing forces here in the war but as the lone stickers (save one of the 101 Dalmatians dogs) in tourist vehicles.

7. Old Jeeps used as shuttles have been repainted with USMC to remind riders of where they came from.