MERRY CHRISTMAS AND HAPPY NEW YEAR
We meant to send this picture out for the holidays, but with our somewhat last minute trip back to the states full of too many things to do we missed getting Christmas cards out. We did have a lovely trip back to the states and it was hard to leave all of our loved ones yet again. Luckily, Abbi has come back with us so that helps ease the homesickness.
Just before we left to come to Oregon for the holidays, our church had a Christmas pageant that we had been for nearly 3 months. I was in the choir and Erik was a wise man (His audition consisted of his looking the part of a hairless sheik). The director of our pageant was a wonderful woman from Taiwan named Jodie. She is a kindergarten teacher which uniquely qualifies her to direct a bunch of adults and talk them into wearing costumes and being substantially out of their comfort zone. She would tell us to smile and be sweet and gentle and the next minute yell at everyone to QUIET DOWN for BABY JESUS.
I was the only female expat in the choir, so I was singing songs with other people who hadn’t grow up singing Christmas music. They didn’t know the tune to Away in a Manger or O Holy Night, and our choir director’s main goal was to help us all hit the same notes. I kept trying to sing the alto line, since that is what I have sung for years and it really threw everybody off. I had to relearn how to sing a hymn in a strong soprano to help others who didn’t know the song, so we were all “new” to the music. I’ve always loved singing in a choir, especially sacred music, as it helps me feel the Spirit of God in a way that is powerfully personal.
The big event was the Saturday night Christmas party. There was an expat family who was Mary & Joseph, and another expat guy was the angel (he has long silver hair, so kind of resembled an angel). He is the most mild mannered person I have known, and so when he said “Mary, be not afraid” in nearly a monotone voice it was hard not to laugh out loud at how un-scary he was. Two little girls played the shepherds, and they relished the part where they got to take care of their sheep when the angel appeared to them, petting their fur and reassuring them. These were the sheep for the shepherds:
It all reminded me of the book The Best Christmas Pageant Ever by Barbara Robinson. Everyone had brought family and friends to see our nativity, and many of them took videos the entire time. As I sang in my Santa hat along with people in the choir, and watched the scene of Christ’s birth unfold with our group of actors who tried hard not to laugh (Erik was hilarious as he wandered through the audience asking them if they knew where the baby Jesus was), I was struck by a feeling of love for the people of Penang who had welcomed us into their congregation with open arms and hearts. It was a little ragtag compared to how a nativity would likely have been performed in the US, but that made it all the more special because they truly loved Jesus and were giving their all.
We’ve been following the snowpocalypse that we are missing in Oregon, and it sounds really really cold. I am enjoying being warm, even though I am bummed that we missed getting to see snow when we went to visit over the holiday. In Penang, I seem to be cold at only two places: in church when we sit underneath the AC unit and in a restaurant after I’ve been walking quite a bit and gotten sweaty.
I’ve realized that very few people in Penang walk anywhere. My doctor’s office is in the hospital that is only three quarters of a mile away, so I walk when I have an appointment in the morning. The sidewalks are shaded from the sun, and there aren’t as many cars on the road, so it can be fairly peaceful. It takes me about 20 minutes, and by then, even at a slow pace, I’m sweating.
This particular time, I walked into the hospital where the AC seemed to be on full blast. As I walked toward the first checkin desk, I was looking through my bag trying to find my phone, since I was seeing a new doctor and I couldn’t remember her name. There wasn’t a line at all, so I popped right up to the desk and told the young man that I had an appointment and I just needed to find the email with the name of the doctor.
I’m searching through my phone, trying to remember what to search for in my inbox, when I hear the guy ask me, “Madam, are you alright?” I look up at him and say Yes, why do you ask? He then gestures towards me and pantomimes the sweat that is dripping down both sides of my face. Embarrassingly I tell him yes, I’m just sweaty because I had walked to the appointment and that we just moved here from the US and I hadn’t adapted to the humidity yet. While I’m explaining all of this to him, he is pulling out three paper towels to hand to me so I can soak up all the sweat. As I finally find the email and hand him my phone to check me in for the appointment, I feel sweat continuing to running down my neck and back, almost as if my sweat glands declared that they will not be shamed at sweating, and in fact, show off just how much sweat my body can produce.
I now make sure to travel everywhere with my hand fan, so that at least people can see that I’m trying to stay cool and collected, no matter the humidity. I do make an extra effort to stay hydrated here, but then my body betrays me and tries to shed all of it at once through my skin. The worst part is after walking around outside and feeling the sweat trying to start up, and then I step into our elevator. Going up to our condo takes a little bit of time (its high enough that your ears pop) and there is only a tiny breeze coming through little holes in the corner of the box. Our building doesn’t air condition any of the common areas in the building, so the heat just hangs out waiting to envelope its next victim. By the time I get into our condo my clothes are completely drenched, requiring a shower and fresh set of clothes.
Abbi came home with us now that she has graduated with a degree in Wildlife Biology (hooray!!) and we’ve been showing her around Georgetown. We’ve seen some fun things and eaten some good food. More on that in a later blog…there are several campy “museums” here that I plan to write about, but think it will be more entertaining to have them all in one blog. I am sad that the Cat Meowseum closed before I got a chance to go through it, but have high hopes for the other tourist attractions.
A semi-regular feature on my blog is As Seen On A Scooter…and I have three pics to post! The first one looks fairly tame. It is two guys on a scooter, who are actually having a conversation while driving. The conversation lasted the entire length of a street, and as a result they were only driving about 15 kph and backing up all the traffic. I only got a pic of the one guy with his head turned, but the guy in the black helmet was definitely turning to share in the conversation.
The next guy has collected all the recycling he can possibly attach to his scooter. I was impressed that none of it was flapping about, but he was driving slower to prevent that. Recycling isn’t as big of a thing here so I’m happy to see it when it happens.
This guy has some ingenuity. I have seen this a few times, but the first time I was able to get a picture. He has welded his food stall to his motorcycle, and you can see his QR code to pay for whatever food it is that he cooks on top of his scooter. His umbrella is conveniently attached and this is the very definition of a food pop-up.
We’re planning a trip to Pulah Weh in Indonesia in a few weeks to get scuba certified, so I’ll have more exciting pictures to share. We didn’t get Christmas cards out this year – and I’ve been remiss in keeping my blog up to date, but will try to be a little more regular. I hope all is well with you and as we celebrate the new year (it’s a big big deal here) I wish you all prosperity and good fortune!
