Thanksgiving 2009

This year I celebrated Thanksgiving Day with my co-workers. There were 5 different nationalities represented at the table! The three of us American ladies did the cooking. No turkey, but we did have a chicken and shrimp soup for our protein :) And then added to that were appetizers, side dishes, and desserts galore! Some of the ingredients we can get in town and others we've been saving up for the holidays :) After dinner, we watched A Charlie Brown Thanksgiving. And then in the evening some of us stayed around to play games together. I really enjoyed it and I find myself blessed and thankful for SO MUCH!

I also wanted to take the opportunity to share about Him through the story of Thanksgiving with some of my Lao friends/students. I have a children's book about Thanksgiving so my language helper helped me translate it into Lao. I read it to a couple friends. Then for part of my classes last Friday, my students came to my house for a mini-party :) I served pumpkin cake and popcorn. Then I read the English version of the story and had a student read the Lao version too. We had a bit of discussion and did a couple more activities.

Bull Fight

This month I went to watch the bull fight in town with some of my co-workers. The fight was part of the events going on for the Hmong New Year celebration. It was HUGE! Hundreds and hundreds of people dotted the hillsides around the field and there were bulls everywhere! Some of the fights were a bit anti-climactic. The bulls might just stare at each other for a short time or run off before ever getting in the ring together. But there were a couple actual fights though. And when those bulls were done fighting and ready to run off, everyone in the crowd better watch out. My friend works at the hospital and said at least one person was gored (not to mention dozens of others who could have been). That's why I stood a ways up on the hill :)

Hmong New Year 2009

This year on November 17th, the Hmong began celebrating their New Years which lasts for many days. There are a lot of spiritual and cultural rituals that occur during this time. Some of my Hmong students helped me understand more about this celebration. Here is some information about it from the internet:

"During the New Year's celebration, Hmong dress in traditional clothing and enjoy Hmong traditional foods, dance, music, bull fights, and other forms of entertainment. Historically, the Hmong New Year celebration was created to give thanks to ancestors and spirits as well as to welcome in a new beginning.

During the Hmong New Year celebration, the Hmong ball tossing game 'pov pob' is a common activity for adolescents. Boys and girls form two separate lines in pairs that are directly facing one another. Girls can ball toss with other girls or boys, but boys cannot ball toss with other boys. It is also taboo to toss the ball to someone of the same clan. When a boy and girl pair up together there is a traditional song that they sing to each other.

The Hmong New Year celebration—specifically based on both religious and cultural beliefs—is an “in-house” ritual that takes place annually in every Hmong household. The celebration is to acknowledge the completion of the rice-harvesting season—thus, the beginning of a new year—so that a new life can begin as the cycle of life continues. During this celebration, every "wandering" soul of every family member is called back to unite with the family again and the young will honor the old or the in-laws—a ritual of asking for blessings from elders of the house and clan as well as the in-laws of other clans. Also, during the Hmong New Year celebration, house spirits as well as the spirit of wealth (xim kaab) are honored. "

Misc. Pics From October

Food: Can't Harvest Without It!

Yes, food is very important here. Before harvesting, everyone eats lots of carbs...sticky rice or fried donut type things. During harvesting, they snack on fruit...oranges seem to be the most plentiful fruit right now. Lunch break is a big affair (a couple people leave the fields early and are the designated cooks for the lunch meal). Also, the rice fields I have seen usually have a little make-shift house that has been built for the purpose of resting, eating, and storing things. Food that was on the menu the days I harvested...spicy sauce for dipping sticky rice in, inner organs of the chicken, little dried whole fish, soup, greens, and a mince pork dish (which seems to be my staple food because I'm not so thrilled about other things :) More fruit snacking takes place during breaks in the afternoon. Then after the sun has set and the day's work is done, everyone goes home to enjoy the final meal of the day (and unfortunately that usually includes a lot of alcohol if they don't have to get up too early the next day).

Harvest Time

Here in L, agriculture is also a big part of life. The weather is a lot cooler than T and the land is a bit different with the mountains and some terraced rice fields. But other than that, the rice harvesting process is very much the same. I was excited to go harvesting with my friend P and her family. I have been asking them the last few weeks when the fields would be ready and expressed my interest in doing it with them. It just doesn't feel like Fall in Southeast Asia without doing it :)

Harvest Time: The Sequel

This year I had the opportunity to spend a day with the family of one of my students out in their rice fields. They finished harvesting the field so I was able to see what happens after that. I was pretty amazed with how many more steps there are. First, we gathered the small bundles of rice that had been drying out into the fields and put them into larger bundles. Next, we took pieces of bamboo strips and tied up the bundles. It took me about 3 or 4 tries to get it tied the right way :) Then the bundles were all collected on a pole that the men wore over their shoulder. The bundles were piled near large sheets (some plastic, some made from sewn rice bags) that had been spread on the ground. The next task was putting the bundle of rice just the right way between a tool that was made from bamboo poles and string. This was used to raise the bundle back behind your head and then quickly throw it down, so that it hit the sheet and knocked all the grains of rice out of the stalk. This was repeated a few times. The bundles were thrown into a pile where the bundle was shaken one more time to get any remaining loose grains out. Then the bamboo strap was taken off and the rice straw was thrown into a pile. The haystack will be used to feed the cows and water buffalos in the months ahead. Next, the rice was winnowed so that only the rice grains would remain. I saw them do this in two ways. The first way was to use a small flat bamboo basket and toss the rice so that the wind would blow away the chaff. The second way was to move the rice around with your feet while fanning the pile with a large bamboo fan in order to blow away the chaff. Finally, the rice was ready to be put into large bags. From here it will be taken to a place where the outer husk of the rice will be taken off by machines leaving just the white rice kernel which will then be ready to eat or sell. It was a long day, but I was really thankful to observe and participate in something that is so much a part of the culture here :)