Happy New Year!

This was one of the quietest New Year's eves I have experienced in a long time. Ever since firecrackers were banned it has been a challenge for people to make adequate noise. Despite the ban, there are always a few crackers - you can still buy and use them outside the city limits. But it's risky, because if the mayor catches you, well, let's just say you wouldn't want that to happen.

Last night a helpful neighbor revved his motorcycle for awhile. A few kids ran around tooting cardboard trumpets. In the distance I could hear a low rumble as people banged on pots and pans, honked horns, banged on metal roofing sheets. But that was it. Soon it started raining and people retreated indoors.

I found out later that half the city had a blackout just at the stroke of midnight so maybe that is partially responsible for the lack of noise. But where were the mega-amplifiers that only the night before were keeping us awake with wannabe stars croaking, I mean crooning into the mike late into the wee hours? Where were the sound systems of the karaoke bars and hip churches that blast their music across the countryside? Why if one of those had been set up by my neighbor's motorcycle last night we could have had a fine earth-thrumming contribution to make! If you added fire and police sirens and my other neighbor's car alarm (mulitplied by hundreds) we could have had a royal din!

I guess we've got some work to do for next year....

On wobbly legs

As I get my still wobbly self to the computer to update this blog, let me assure you that I am still alive, and, a brief scan of the internet shows that the world has managed to carry on just fine without me the last few days.

I am recovering from a bout of some weird gastroenteritis that's going around. It hit me Christmas Eve and I spent the next two days flat on the floor with grog-inducing fever, abdominal pain and diarrhea hoping I wouldn't vomit too. Wednesday the fever broke so I sweat all day long but at least felt well enough to sit up part of the day and alert enough to read - in between trips to the bathroom. By evening I managed to get somebody to buy me a liter of Sprite and that went down well. Lost 10 pounds in two days - let me know if you'd like me to send you some bugs....

Now I am up and about, no more nausea, though after a trip upstairs my legs are really tired and crampy and I felt the need to sit and rest before coming down again. Combing my hair makes my arm tired, and holding a book makes my hand cramp. Amazing that as recently as last Saturday I was doing stair step aerobics and today I am so weak I would probably fall off the step!

On Christmas day my house helper stopped by to get some ice. I apparently looked so bad that she was afraid to go home so she and her roommate moved in for a couple of days. Very kind of them. Though of course since I certainly wasn’t in any condition to make any demands on anybody, they had plenty of time to watch VCD movies on my old laptop.

I’ve had my share of GI upsets in my life but this was the all time champion, definitely a new strain of whatever it was. And now freed of the fever, I would like to know more about the epidemiology of this bug. Was it contamination from raw eggs used freely in holiday cooking? Did anybody else get sick who was at any of the same events I was at? If so, what could have been the common factor? Not that I will ever know for sure, but I’m curious....

Christmas Part 2

December 25, 2006

Celebration is not unique to Christmas. Others celebrate at the end of the month of fasting. Others at their New Year with the dragon dance, and so on. It seems that ALL major celebrations involve to varying degrees, food, noise, lights, family reunion, gift-giving and decorations. So what is so special about Christmas?

Most people around here when pressed will tell you that Christmas is the celebration of Jesus’ birth. And why is that so special? He came to save us from our sins.

But that’s where a lot of people now days get kind of confused. It’s not popular to talk about sin anymore. We all make mistakes, we have “issues” or “hang-ups” or problems. Most people see themselves as pretty good and not really sinners – that’s for the criminal types that commit murder, hurt children, rob, or oppress their people. We try to be good, most of the time, and after all nobody’s perfect. We compare ourselves with others and can always find somebody else who’s messing up worse than we are and so we assure ourselves that we’re not so bad. So really, what do we need a savior for?

What we forget though, is that God has revealed a coming day of judgment and He isn’t grading on a curve. God is not a post-modernist. From His perspective, man is NOT the measure of all things – He is.

The prophet Jeremiah said that the heart is more deceitful than all else and is desperately sick, who can understand it? The prophet Isaiah said that all our righteous deeds are like a filthy garment. The apostle Paul said that nothing good lived in him, that is, in his sinful nature. For though he had the desire to do what is good, he could not carry it out. What he did was not the good he wanted to do but rather the evil he did not want to do—and he kept on doing it. He found this law at work: when he wanted to do good, evil was right there with him. In his inner being he delighted in God's law; but he saw another law at work in the members of his body waging war against the law of his mind and making him a prisoner of the law of sin What a wretched man he was! Who would rescue him from this body of death?

This sums up man’s dilemma. He doesn’t measure up. Especially since the measure is God, not man. And no matter how he tries, he can’t measure up, the evil is always there even in the midst of the good he tries to do. And what’s worse, his heart is so deceitful that he’s often not even aware of the evil he is doing. That’s pretty bad news.

But that bad news is precisely what makes the birth of a savior such GOOD news. Think about it.

"Today in the town of David a Savior has been born to you; he is Christ the Lord."

Thanks be to God for His indescribable gift!

Christmas Part 1

If an alien came to my three worlds, what would he observe about Christmas?

World #3: In this country Christmas involves lots of lights, noise, parties, shopping. Some of the light displays are awesome – especially if you have lived many years with minimal or no electricity. Sound in this city is mainly music nowdays ever since the mayor banned firecrackers. In fact the residents have been rather in a depression for the last 3 years! They try other noise-making alternatives such as honking horns, blowing cardboard trumpets, turning up stereos, banging on tin roofing but none of it is as satisfying as blowing up a whole string of big firecrackers.The shops have extended hours and are full most of the time now with people buying clothes, food, gifts. Much of the gift-giving is downward: employers give to employees, businesses give to regular customers. Even the city government distributes buckets of rice, canned meat, oil, noodles, and soap to some of the poorest of the poor via churches.

If you ask people what they like about Christmas they will say they like the parties, the gifts, the lights, being with family, giving and sharing. Many churches have special events, cantatas, decorations, and sermons about Jesus’ birth.

World # 2: In the second of my worlds, Christmas is much less commercialized. There are exra lights – even if you have to make them yourself out of plastic soap containers, kerosene and coke bottle caps. Christmas trees often still use real candles (and so obviously don’t stay lit very long). Noise is not quite as noticable – but the boys in the village make bamboo cannons using kerosene and matches or little “bombs” made of shaved match heads which they pound or do something to until it explodes. (Due to the ongoing conflict in my region in recent years, these home-made explosives were banned a couple of years ago much to the dismay of the youth.) They too have more parties but they are more oriented around a religious service with a special snack or meal served afterwards. There is special music and some people try to buy new clothes. Long hours are spent making cookies (see last post). Nowdays there are more commercially available decorations (see post on ting-ting-ting) and there is some gift- giving, mainly at children’s parties. Otherwise gift giving tends to be upward, employees giving to employer, students to the teacher, and a gift typically consists of food – like a jar of beautiful cookies. There is a lot of personal visiting in people’s houses on Christmas and New Year’s Day and for a week afterwards and that is perhaps why gift giving goes upward. The boss will have a lot more visitors at Christmas than the average employee and so he will be very grateful for your cookies – he can serve them to his visitors.

If you ask people what they like about Christmas, the kids will answer “Cookies!” Otherwise people say they are celebrating Jesus’ birth. They like the special events at church and they like the family time together because relatives who live far away usually make an effort to visit at this time of year.

World #1: In the first of my worlds it is cold so making a lot of noise has never been much of an option – who could hear it anyway when everybody is closed up in their houses? So maybe that’s why lights and decorations and gift-giving have become more prominent. There are special foods and a lot of people complain about putting on weight at Christmas time. Churches do have special services but since Christmas has become more of a cultural institution, most of the partying is not done in connection with church. In fact most parties are not at all religious. Gift giving is common at all levels – within the family, among friends, colleagues, even strangers and is both upward and downward. For many it has become a financial burden – yet maybe because there is a certain joy in being able to give, people still keep doing it. It has traditionally been the time of year for family who live far away to come “home” for Christmas and for many people this is the heart of Christmas. Being alone on Christmas day is thought to be one of the worst things that could happen and so inviting people who would otherwise be alone to celebrate the day together with your family is also a tradition.

Fresh thinking and fruits

I am lucky because I do not have many Christmas events that I must participate in. Some people are literally run ragged by all the parties, programs, and gift-giving they are involved in. My load is pretty small – getting Christmas cards sent out, making cookies, getting gifts for employees and other regulars in one’s life (like the sewing lady, the banana man, the egg lady, etc ), and only two known obligatory “events”. (Sometimes I am invited at the last minute on the holidays themselves so I also need to be prepared to have some small gifts and food ready to throw together at a moment’s notice.)

Sending cards out can be a bit of a challenge because you have to get them in the mail soon enough to have a chance for them to actually arrive before February. Otherwise you may as well wait and send out New Year’s greetings. Looking for cards is often a challenge too. There are some really whacky cards out there now. I don’t mean humerous, I mean weird. Like this one:

“Merry Christmas! Fancy 4 u place where is always all fresh thinking and fruits!”

Or this one: “Merry Christmas! The love is all around world and your dreams come true.”

Here’s another one I found a few years ago, I still giggle every time I see it. I mean, what is it?!





Today we are making cookies. In the second of my worlds you must make hundreds of beautiful, identical cookies so that you can artistically arrange them in big glass jars. Drop cookies are not acceptable because they are not beautiful. Cookies don’t have to taste good – and frankly often they don’t- they just have to look nice. The oven is typically a small tin box placed on top of a kerosene burner. It takes days to make enough cookies and you have to shut all the doors and windows lest a stray breeze make your fire uneven. So here, in the third of my worlds, we really have it good – we have a real oven and big cookie sheets, plus we can have a fan on! People here appreciate cookies because they don’t know how to make them. Even “ugly” drop cookies are appreciated because they taste good. (These people know what good cookies are!)

So, if you can't make cookies, may your season at least be filled with, er, fresh thinking and fruit!

Polygamy

In the second of my worlds there is currently some national debate on the subject of polygamy. The government currently forbids civil servants from having more than one wife. Some interesting quotes from today's national English paper:

A leader from the country’s largest religious organization said, "Not every man is up to being a husband, unlike women (who make good wives). Therefore, polygamy is nature's way of balancing the supply of women wanting to be wives, with the demand of men who are up to being good husbands." He also said, “every man is polygamous by nature.”

A female legislator said: "Polygamy is better than infidelity. Think of a 25-year-old widow -- she will need a husband to finance her children. If polygamy is banned, things would only get worse for her." (Is this legislator from Mars? I wonder how many marriages like that she knows of? I certainly haven’t heard of anything like that happening in my area. The second or third wife is invariably younger and has NO kids (or if she does they get left with relatives.) Sorry, it’s a nice dream, but it seems that men are not looking for other men’s kids to support.

Some say that outlawing polygamy would increase infidelity and prostitution. Others say it would be good to outlaw it because it is harmful to women and children. What would be really interesting would be to see some statistics.....

Unfixable Things

Have you ever had one of those unfixable things? Like a stereo that plays just fine at the repair shop but constantly clicks itself off at home? Or what about bats living under the 2nd floor eaves that leave lovely brown streaks aaaaall the way down the white walls, despite all efforts to get rid of them. (They LOVE light! Putting up a screen makes them even happier – they can hang from the outside plus go inside too!) Or what about a leak in the neighbor’s upstairs bathroom that drips or rains down into your dining room. You know, the kind that gets “fixed” with bubble gum and every now and then the gum gets knocked off or gets old and falls off and the leak starts again? Or the situation with another neighbor – every time it rains his garage gets filled with dirty water. Not just rain water, it comes complete with shampoo satchets, soap wrappers, rice, and other delicacies from people’s kitchens and laundries (though at least so far no TP!). It has been “fixed” many times, but yesterday they were out there again scooping water out in buckets.

In the grand scheme of things, what is the purpose of those unfixables? To build character? To bring in more income to the blood pressure drug companies? To ensure tenants don’t stay too long? To test creativity? To give you topics of conversation to try out at boring parties? How would YOU deal with it? Would you just enjoy your stereo whenever it intermittantly feels like playing? Or would you go out and buy a new one? Would you paint your house brown since you can’t get rid of the bats? Would you buy stock in the bubble gum factory since the leak seems to be unfixable? Or would you stock up on buckets? Or open a swimming pool? Maybe we should paint our dining room wall to look like a water fall. Then whenever it leaks again it would blend right in. But I still haven’t figured out what to advise the neighbor with the flooding garage...