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...

The mayor is king

Mayors in this part of the world are quite powerful, almost like kings. The mayor of this town is well known for his strong armed tactics, yet the majority of citizens flock to the polls and re-elect him time after time. He is credited with turning this city around from being a syndicate-infested killing field 15-20 years ago to a fairly safe city today. He is probably most well known for his anti-drug campaigns. It is said that he once pushed an unrepentant drug lord out of a helicopter into the sea. He has also had an anti-smoking campaign - smoking is now banned in most public places. He has had a garbage campaign and as a result this city is one of the cleanest in Asia. He was annoyed at young upper class kids drag racing on public streets and threatened to catch them and tie them up naked in front of city hall. Since it is known that he does what he threatens to do, the kids believed him and the drag racing problem has ceased. He has banned firecrackers within city limits, and recently banned rowdy music and drinking in cemetaries.

Of course some bans are easier to enforce than others. It is illegal to give to beggers, but, well, obviously this is not strictly enforced. It is illegal to sell pirated CDs but as soon as the police stop patrolling the pedestrian bridges, the sellers return. It is illegal to urinate just anywhere. Of course you cannot police a whole city's urinating habits but at least I have observed guys being a LITTLE bit more discrete about it. This month begins a traffic campaign. Starting today if you want to turn left you are to get in the left lane. If you want to turn right you are to get in the right lane. If you want to go straight, stay in the middle lane and if you don't you will regret it. We can expect that at least for the month of December this will be enforced. But old habits die hard - why not get in the left lane to go straight, especially when the center lane is backed up? To tell the truth, traffic in this city generally moves VERY well. Especially when you consider how very few traffic lights there are. In fact it seems that the more traffic police there are on the streets, the more snarled traffic becomes.

I hope that one of these days the mayor can figure out a way to stop the teen aged gangs.....

ting-ting-ting

Remember those musical greeting cards? You open them up and a small disc embedded in the card starts ting-ting-tinging Happy Birthday or Jingle Bells or something. Some Asian entrepenuer began inserting those ting-ting-tings into Christmas decorations. A few years ago I was in the village in church. The pastor had gotten some ornament with lights that he attached to the pulpit. He'd turn it on during the church service and just let it ting-ting-ting through the whole service. I guess he thought it was just super cool. It drove me crazy. I am sure that I was the only one in the congregation that knew that every tune it played was about Rudolph, or white Christmases, jingle bells, etc. Not exactly fitting for the local climate not to mention the sermons being preached. I avoided services as much as possible that trip. Upon returning to the third of my worlds I discovered that "musical" decorations were on sale here too.

Now my neighbor has put up a whole string of Christmas lights - "musical" ones - ting-ting-tinging outside my window. Did they think to put the ting-ting-ting INSIDE their apartment so they could enjoy it? Oh no. They put it OUTSIDE so I could hear the ting-ting-ting reverberating between the buildings. Not only that, they typically turn it on and then go out for the evening! What's worst of all is that it is a cheapie. It plays only one or two lines each of Jingle Bells, White Christmas, Here Comes Santa Claus, We Wish you a Merry Christmas and then starts over again. Over and over and over and over.........

Am I going crazy?!!! I am considering going over there one of these evenings soon and unscrewing a lightbulb....and if that doesn't work I have scissors.... >:-)

(No, don't worry. you won't see headlines saying I was electrocuted cutting wires. There are other more culturally appropriate ways of trying to deal with it. You know, the third party approach...)

Lamp shade hats

Yesterday I went to a graduation. I've managed to avoid them for a long, long time but finally one came along that I just couldn't say no to. This was someone receiving a master's degree in business administration. She wanted me to go along as the "parent". You see each graduate is allowed only one guest. It is usually a parent or sibling or aunt or uncle. But in this case none of her family was available so I got the honors. Literally. I was given a green ribbon with "PARENT" written down it to stick on my blouse. And my friend had to wear a yellow one saying "GRADUATE". (I suppose that was just in case someone wondered if she was really a graduate or whether she just always wears long baggy black polyester gowns in the tropical heat.)

It was the kind of cultural event where everyone pretends to know what to do, but actually, I think not everyone did know. I wasn't the only one watching everybody else to try to get some clues. Kids were selling ribbon and flower garlands and corsages. Hmm. Maybe we're supposed to buy them. Yes indeed as it turns out. They are a necessary part of the ceremony. Fortunately the kids were also selling little cloth and bamboo hand fans because all the pre-ceremony standing around was done outside in the sun.

About 1:30 we were finally lined up and marched single file into the gymnasium. We had to all walk to the front and then circle back down the other side to our seats. Masters and PhDs were first in and sat near the front. There were probably over 500 grads all together. Undergrads had colored cords strung through their gowns along the yoke front and back. Masters had wide satin borders down the front of their gowns, colored according to major. They also wore square black boxy hats with long fringe all the way around. Looked a lot like lamp shades.

Extra guests filled the bleachers way up in the balcony. Not sure what they could see from up there. It was pomp and circumstances as a university leader solemnly paraded in with the college emblem on a stick. All the staff paraded in behind him in their colorful graduation regalia. Some intrepid boy scouts stood at attention across the front of the stage holding various flags. Peppy march band music was piped in from somewhere.

And then we waited. And waited. It turned out that a major donor to the university was going to be given an honorary PhD in humanities that day. He is a very wealthy man, owns the national airline and a big brewery in addition to other businesses. But even he couldn't get the plane to arrive on time. So we all had to wait 45 minutes for him and his party to arrive. Those boy scouts deserve a badge - they stood there at attention the entire time and didn't falter or faint.

Finally Mr T arrived and the shown was on. He was awarded the first degree and all his honors were read out. Then he read a speech in English. It was very disapppointing - he's either not a very good reader or he needs new glasses. After some other speeches, the grads and "parents" had to stand and award each other with the corsages and garlands/leis. You would have been really embarassed if you hadn't bought some because your poor grad would have been the only one without one. And you would have been the only "parent" without one. Then some more speeches. Then the grads and parents had to stand again and the poor parents had to try to figure out how to put the "hoods" or whatever they are around the shoulders of the grad and stick it in place with straight pins. These hoods are more colored satiny stuff with weird projections and protruberances. I think I finally got it on more or less right but no guarantee I could do it correctly a second time! Even the undergrads had these "hood" thingys so it was quite colorful.

Then we had to line up by departments, two by two. As two intrepid people read out the names of each and every grad and their "parent", groups of 6 pairs of "parents" and grads had to go up front to a line of colorful university staff handing out fake diplomas. It was kind of like going forward to take communion - the staff stood behind a long table and on our side of the table the space was divided into six sections so that each pair of us went up a step to stand in one of the sections before one of the staff and recive a rolled up fake diploma. We got a guy with a cool purple fringy hat. We both shook his hand and then backed down off the step and paraded back around to our seats.

This took awhile as there were several hundred grads but finally it ended. Then they had everybody but the masters change their tassle to the other side of their hats. (The lamp shade hats didn't allow for moving the fringe anywhere.) They made the grads all stand and give an oath of loyalty to their alma mater, sing the school song, plus a school "victory" song. And then they were pronounced graduated and some nets on the ceiling full of balloons and confetti were opened and all that stuff floated down on top of us. That was kind of cool. After the emblem on a stick and the staff paraded out, the rest of us were allowed to leave.

Of course you have to hang around awhile and take pictures of your grad and all their friends and the "parents". But finally it's time to leave and you wend your way slowly out to the main road and join the rush hour traffic trying to find transportation home.

I am grateful graduations don't occur every week!

Smoke and haze

Imagine living in a city where instead of a dry season you had a smoke season. Imagine for over two months having the airport closed due to low visibility. And not only the airport. Sometimes the roads into town are also closed, even river traffic has difficulty due to poor visibility. Imagine having to frequently use headlights to drive around town in the daytime. Imagine school being cancelled for days at a time because the smoke is so thick that there is a real danger of children being hit by cars on their way to and from school. Not to mention the air quality in unairconditioned schools. People who can afford it leave town for the season. But most must stay.

I was planning to go there this week for a workshop, but was informed today that the workshop has been cancelled. The area covered by smoke is steadily decreasing as the rains finally begin to fall. But this city is right in the heart of it and so far the particulate matter in the air is still well in the dangerous zone, and the airport is still closed.

According to the local news, the government is renting two water bomber planes from the former Sov.U. The planes can scoop up 12 tons of seawater and fly in to the worst of the fires and dump it. Friday the pilots said they were were disappointed because they had not been able to get to the worst burning places due to poor visibility. Saturday one of the planes slid off the runway in a neighboring city and is now awaiting repairs. It was thought that poor visibility was the major contributing factor to the accident.

The smoke is the result of farmers and plantation owners burning the land off every year as a cheap and convenient way of clearing it. Because there is so much peat, the peat continues to smolder long after the surface fire has gone out and only a period of substantial sustained rainfall puts it out.

Update on D

D has been out of the hospital for over a month now. He is doing very well, though he still has drainage from the major knife wound in his abdomen. The doctor says some internal stitches are infected but the body will eventually reject them (or was it eject them?) He is eating well, no more fever. He would like to play basketball but the doctor says to wait. He still wears only elastic waisted pants because of the wound and he still walks a bit bent over, but he is alive and on the mend.

Enough funds came in to pay for all his medicines. His aunt was able to get the mayor's office to pay for his hospitalization as he is technically an orphan. His extended family was finally able to get a loan on their coconuts (4 families' coconuts). The terms are that the lendor gets to harvest the coconuts for five years and the family gets a loan of $480. By the time the loan came through D was out of the hospital, so it was decided to use part of the money to pay off the mango orchard loan. So now they have the use of the mango orchard again which should help them pay off the coconut loan. If they are lucky and careful, they might be able to pay off the coconuts early. Of course they would have to add extra because the 5 years of harvests was the interest...