Dear friends-
It has been an absolute whirlwind of activity since I last posted! Christmas was certainly a joy-filled time for me here, (with just a few moments of homesickness thrown in). The other YAVs and I are at currently on retreat at Achen's house in Aluva.
Last Saturday, I got to experience a cultural first in attending an engagement function near Kottayam. This was the engagement of Sneetha and Rijo-Sneetha is a friend from Kottayam Mixed Voices. Here engagingly are a huge and public function with possibly hundreds invited! It was basically a big lunch in a very large hall-probably over 500 were in attendance, with a short service beforehand. A few hymns were sung, then the engaged couple were brought out on to the stage together. Their families joined them and everyone was introduced. There were a few prayers of blessing on the couple and on their impending marriage, and a special song. The service ended with a hymn and then everyone enjoyed a delicious lunch together. It was a beautiful and exuberant function.
Sunday all day was spent travelling to and from Cochin with Mixed Voices to perform our recital a second time, and launched a week that was to be absolutely packed with a constant stream of rehearsals and performances. As the college and hostel choirs had very limited rehearsal time, we were using every spare moment we had to review parts and run our songs. I feel like for a whole week I ran around with a pitch pipe just tweaking a bunch of things here and there as I went from place to place around college, haha.
On Tuesday I had my usual classes at Baker Vidyapith, where we sang Christmas carols and made Christmas cards. It was such a joy to sit and pick out carols on my guitar as I watched the students happily engaged with their card-making. Many of them gave me their Christmas cards with plenty of sweet messages inside! My room is currently haphazardly littered with remnants of holiday cheer-glitter and Christmas cards everywhere. My favorite Christmas card was from a girl at Baker Memorial who, as I was leaving the classroom, handed me a card with another teacher's name on the front, then grabbed it back, hastily crossed out the name, and wrote GLORIYA on the envelope. (My name is frequently mistook as 'Gloria' here.) The message inside was still to the other teacher. This made me laugh so hard, and though I feel bad that I received a card that was intended for another teacher, it brings me great joy that it was of such utmost importance to this little dear that I receive a card!
On Wednesday I returned to Baker Vidyapith for their Christmas performance. Like Baker Memorial's celebration, this also was filled with songs by a choir, a tableau, dance number, prayer, a message, and much more. There was a skit called "The Legend of the Christmas Tree" which involved kids playing trees on stage with elaborate tree costumes-they were also completely wrapped up in Christmas lights and couldn't walk. It was hilarious.
I taught the kids' choir the song "The Twelve Days of Christmas" complete with motions. Please enjoy this video of our rehearsal:
The minute I could leave Baker, I ran back to the hostel to get ready for our big hostel Christmas celebration that evening. This involved wearing the traditional Kerala sari which a few of the girls helped me put on. (The traditional Kerala sari is white with gold trim.) I should have made sure everything was ready to go BEFORE putting on my sari, because running around trying to get everything ready in a sari included a lot of tripping (it is quite difficult to walk in a sari!)
Each year the girls of Lea Hostel present a Christmas program for the faculty of the college, and much preparation goes into this performance. Before I knew it, the choir and keyboard were assembled, the crowd was sitting on the other side of the curtain, and it was time for the performance to begin! The program included 5 English songs by the choir which I led (and had spent many painstaking hours working on-all the many many hours spent on just those 5 carols!!) and 4 Malayalam songs. There was a message given and then the second-years performed a wonderful drama. From all that I could gather, it was about how all of history had been yearning for Christ's birth. This was shown through the depiction of many Biblical stories: Cain and Abel, Noah and the ark, the story of Ruth, and finally, Christ's birth. The performance also included dance. Though the actors were silent, girls on the side of the stage spoke for them. I found it fascinating to watch them, as in giving the lines, they mirrored the emotions of the characters on stage. The drama, complete with music, sound effects, and lighting, must have taken a LOT of preparation. It was so fascinating to watch the girls I know acting as different Biblical characters-their acting was very impassioned and genuine.
Before the final song, Santa Claus also came to Lea Hostel, and he was sure to invite me up on stage for a dance before he disappeared to go tease the Principal sitting in the front row. We closed with Silent Night (with both alto and tenor parts-I was SO proud of the girls!) and then the program was over.
Or so I thought! I went upstairs to begin undoing my sari when Shalu came and found me and said, "What are you doing? The program's just begun!" The OFFICIAL program was over, and once the faculty left, Lea Hostel turned CRAZY! There was something called Song Fusion, where the 2nd PG students sang literally 100 different favorite film songs one after the other while all the other girls screamed and sang with them. There was a skit that had something to do with medical students and autopsies done by the 1st years (not sure what this had to do with Christmas??) and the girls were SO LOUD! I presented my gift to warden and assistant warden, and gave each of the girls 2 bangles as a little Christmas gift. Then began an EPIC DANCE PARTY complete with a DJ!!!!
What better way is there to celebrate Christ's birth than by dancing?!?! The girls of Lea Hostel certainly know how to dance and how to have fun! I danced with them until about 1:30 am, and it was a wonderful time!!!! (How are they all such great dancers?!?) Then collapsed into bed.... but at 3 am was awakened by 1st year students caroling from door to door!!!!!!!!! This entire evening was ridiculously hot, joyful, and gloriously exhausting. I think when I look back on my time at Lea, I will remember the hours of dancing with especial fondness.
Before anyone had actually had any rest, it was time to be up and rehearsing for the college choir performance on Thursday night! We spent all day rehearsing (the students AND faculty missed class), and once again, I ran back to the hostel to be sari-ed and ran back! So much hard work presented so very quickly! This was the CMS College Carol Service. The Bishop was present to give the message, and in between the lessons, the choir sang English and Malayalam songs. I was really proud of the choir for how well they did on the pieces I had rehearsed with them in so short a time span. I directed three pieces; please enjoy the videos below. The first is "A Shoot Shall Come Forth Out of Jesse," by Richard Horn, the second a traditional African spiritual, "Behold That Star," and finally a Bach chorale, "How Brightly Shines the Morning Star." I also sang a solo of "In the Bleak Midwinter" which has become the carol I will forever associate with Christmas in India.
After the performance, all were invited to the Principal's Quarters for a joyous dinner. It was so wonderful to hang out with all the choir members after a successful performance, our spirits rejoicing together! What a glorious couple of evenings.
The next day I spent resting and packing as the hostel was closing for break. I spent two nights at Gigi Sir's house, including Christmas Eve. Most of Friday and Saturday were spent rehearsing for the Christmas Eve performance at CSI Ascension Church, and the carol service was held on Saturday Evening. Our girls' quartet performed our two pieces well, and at the very end (after an almost 3-hour service), I played violin on Silent Night. This was a feat insomuch as just from Friday to Saturday I had broken my E-string not once, but TWICE, and managed to knock over a music stand which fell on top of my violin and knocked out the bridge. Thanks to Gigi Sir's help and the help of others, by Saturday night I had a working violin. YIKES!
Christmas Eve was spent at Gigi Sir's. It was truly special to spend time with his daughter Asha and son Joe and to decorate their Christmas tree with them. I felt so loved and cared for as a part of their family for a couple of days.
On Christmas Day, I took a train from Kottayam to Aluva to join the other YAVs for retreat. We shared Christmas together and have been resting at Achen's house. Yesterday we visited Athirapilly Falls, a park with beautiful waterfalls and forest about an hour from Aluva. (Random tidbit: The park staff are so heavily monitoring litter that two "rangers," I guess they're called, COUNTED and recorded how many pieces of plastic we had in our car before we could enter the forest! How interesting...and effective!) This retreat has also included a trip to the doctor's for me, as I had a cough, sinus infection, and fever. Thanks to drugs and much care, I am feeling much better! Today Rachel and I led a choir retreat for children at CSI Church, Elamkulam. Tomorrow I will lead a day-long choir retreat for adults (to the best of my ability despite being sick.)
Aaaand tomorrow MY SISTER ARRIVES IN INDIA!!!! My mother's flight has been delayed a day due to rough weather, but she will join us on the following day, the 30th. I cannot even express in words how excited I am to see them. So this is me singing off of blogging for a couple of weeks while they're here. My old and new families coming together to meet-how thrilling!
I would also like to express my heartfelt thanks to all of you for all of the support during the holiday season in the form of emails, cards, and packages. I am so incredibly blessed. Thank you, thank you, thank you, for thinking of and praying for me during the holidays...and always! I could not do this without your support. Know that I, too, am thinking of and praying for you all.
Wishing you a very Happy New Year,
Claudia
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