Christmas looked a little bit different than it usually does this year. On December 20, my squad and I had a dance competition against some of the kids from the village. We split up into two groups and practiced dance routines all day long. When we pulled up to the competition that night, we found out that we were competing against adults, not kids. When my group went up to dance, we ended up awkwardly laughing the whole time and didn’t really stay on beat. But hey, we had fun, and we got a consolation prize (aka, we sucked haha)!
Instead of a traditional candlelight service on Christmas Eve, my squad had a bonfire. We worshipped, one of my squadmates shared a message about compassion, we all did a gift exchange and ended the night with some chai tea and cookies.
On Christmas day, instead of waking up to the sound of Christmas music, I woke up to the sound of a pig squealing as it was being butchered right outside of my bedroom window. In the morning my squad attended a Christmas church service for the kids in the village. We ended up having 3 minutes to figure out a skit, song, and choreography to perform in front of the kids. Being put on the spot and having to come up with a lesson or dance has been a common occurrence here in India, I guess the Lord really thought that we all needed a good lesson in how to be flexible. We ended up doing a Charlie Brown style skit, where one person read the nativity story, and the rest of the squad acted it out. Some people got on all fours and started to “bahhh,” or “mooo,” like they were the animals in the stable, while other people put cardigans over their heads and acted like they were shepherds. I ended up walking across the room while flapping my arms, attempting to look like an angel. After the skit, we had to come up with a song to sing that had actions to it. We started to sing “Go Tell It On The Mountain,” (and it was very off-key), and attempted to follow the dance moves of the one person who knew the actions. At that moment God did not only teach us how to be flexible, He also deeply humbled us all.
At 2:30, we went to a village-wide feast. It was BYOR (bring your own rice), and they had 6 big pots of curry. There were different options with a variety of spice ranges and different types of meats (like the pig that was slaughtered right outside of my window, or the cow that I say them torching the day before).
In India they celebrate Christmas for 2 days, so we did the exact same thing the next day. But this time, we had a heads up as to what we were supposed to do for kid’s church. Apparently, on the program from the day before, they wrote that they would be having special performance from the “World Race choir,” on the 26th. Considering that our musical number from the day before didn’t sound the best, and our liaison strongly urged us to, we made sure to set aside some time to practice. In the end, we did not sound like a choir, but hey, at least we stayed on key (for the most part).
This Christmas was definitely one for the books. It was hard being away from my family and friends, but being able to spend Christmas with my Squad Y family and new friends from India is something that I will cherish forever.
Merry Christmas <3
