Christmas, Christmas

my living room decorated for Christmas

Dear friends and family,

 

 

New Year’s greetings from Laos. It was going to be Christmas, but you can see how well that worked. J

 

the fountain at Patuxay–from when I went with my family shortly before I moved out (I actually didn’t mean to put this photo in the post, but it’s pretty, so it can stay.)

Celebrating Christmas in a Buddhist culture and tropical climate felt more different than I expected. Yet sometimes I forget how different it is that our MCC staff Christmas party was held outside sitting on straw mats and that I recited my role of the angel in Lao, not English. Things like that seem like such a part of normal life now, after 4 months. I’ve spent only a third of the past year in Laos, but since it is my life now, it’s almost hard to remember what it felt like to live in Washington, D.C. or to be finishing my senior year of college, or to be living at home and visiting friends over the summer. But when I realize that I’ve gotten to have all of these rich experiences in the space of one year, I feel very blessed.

getting to know some of the daughters of MCC staff at the MCC Christmas party

Air as Santa at the staff party

Two nights before Christmas, I got a call from my host mom last minute inviting me to go to church to see the girls dance for a Christmas program they were doing. Nampung had been showing me the Chinese dance that she was practicing for this for at least the past month or two, so I went, even though I was tired. It was quite the production. I was so proud of those girls you would think they were my daughters. Some of the youth put on a play that seemed to be about how Jesus is the only one who can release you from your burdens. I can’t be sure since I didn’t catch most of the words, but I have been amazed at how not being able to rely on verbal communication has made me much more observant of other forms. They handed out numbers to everyone and raffled off lots of gifts–everything from pillows to candy. It was basically a big party. The most memorable part, though, was that the electricity went out. Twice. The second time for 10 or 15 minutes. That’s actually really unusual in my experience, at least in the city, but the leaders of the program took took it in stride, as I have often noted (with amazement) that Lao people tend to do. They just sang songs and danced in the dark until the lights came back on. Then they cheered and resumed the program.

Ben trying on Amy's and my gifts from Debi

Christmas Day was spent with other MCCers. We drank Ovaltine (with lots of sweetened condensed milk, it’s my new favorite food) and got really addicted to a 3D jigsaw puzzle of the Taj Mahal. We also cooked a lot of food and listened to lots of cheesy Christmas music. It was a wonderful way to celebrate, but doesn’t make as good of a story as other parts of my Christmas here, so I’ll move on.

One of my coworkers, Somchit, working the cookie cutters. I'm "supervising."

The day after Christmas, I went to what I thought was a concert at my host sister’s school. It ended up being more of a talent show for all the middle school students, and there weren’t as many other family members as I expected. So at first it was a bit awkward to be there, but I’m becoming surprisingly comfortable with the feeling of being out of place, so I had a good laugh about that. It was quite amusing to see a bunch of 12-year-olds dancing hip-hop and singing Thai pop songs and a few English Christmas songs that they learned in English class!

 

The day after Christmas, I showed up at my host sister’s school for what I thought was a Christmas concert that many family members would be attending. It turned out that I was there 2 hours early, and the event was actually more of a talent show for all the middle school kids that not many family members attended (and certainly no foreigners!). The first few minutes of people asking why I was there and staring at me in surprise were fairly awkward, but I was soon able to let go of my discomfort and just enjoy the festive (and hilarious) combination of Thai pop karaoke, hip-hop group dance routines and English Christmas songs. I’m sure that much of the reason that I was able to feel comfortable with feeling so out of place was because of the graciousness of my host sister in rushing over to sit beside me and introducing me to all her curious friends. It is also exciting, though, that while it was a reminder that I will never blend in in Laos, that fact didn’t bother me–I was satisfied with being myself.

And now tonight is New Year’s Eve already, and I’m sure that will bring other adventures! Sabaidee Bee Mai! (Happy New Year!)

Namfone with her glasses, heart, and bouquet. We enjoyed playing with all the gifts my mom sent for my host sisters, but the pipe cleaners were especially exciting.