January 14th is the halfway point and the beginning of our civic engagement!
The next 6 days will be spent in a Lepcha village (which we learned more specifically
falls under the Rai indigenous group). There, we will be interacting with the
community through song and dance, basket weaving, and homestays for three of
the nights. I met my homestay family (briefly); there was a father and his
daughter, who is my age! She speaks English but he does not. But I am excited because
being able to (perhaps indirectly) talk with an elder is an amazing opportunity
for learning about the history of the village and how climate change has
manifested itself in the region.
To get to the village, we divided in half and I ended up in the group that walked down to the school. We first hiked to the top of the village, then wound down on a narrow mostly-dirt-but-at-times-rocky path. We eventually made it to the school; as we came around the corner, everyone collected on the lawn and began clapping. For me, it was embarrassingly awkward, but others got a kick out of it. We took our place in chairs outside the school while dozens of children sat on hay beside us. They were so adorable, rolling over each other and trying to find a place to sit.
Two teenagers emceed the event, speaking in both English and Nepali so everyone could understand. There were four different dances before lunch (videos and pictures to follow), then we talked with people for about an hour over lunch. We spent another hour listening to the religious rituals and history of the community. One of the ceremonies for marriage is to either bring the families together in agreement, or, more frequently here, the girl runs away from her family without notice to live with the guy's family. If the girl's family sanctions the marriage, they will go to the other house and make arrangements. If not, the girl and guy have to go to a monk to officiate their marriage.
After the talk, there was another dance; after that dance, they asked us all to come up and dance with them. The girls who had just performed showed us how to do their moves, but we had no clue what to show them when they asked for American dance moves. The Macarena and a few other classics surfaced, but it left us all wishing Americans had a more unifying style of dance that we could have shown them.
We left after the group dance and stopped in Kalimpong, where we visited a paper making factory and ate samosas. Back at the farm, we had dinner and a raging dance party to 70s/80s music ensued. Anu was getting really into it and showed us how to dance to Punjabi songs. Another professor from Colby, Divya, visited us and joined in! She'll be teaching as a professor of ecological policy in the spring. Anu had also made amazing banana bread, which perfectly hit the spot before we saundered off to bed.
To get to the village, we divided in half and I ended up in the group that walked down to the school. We first hiked to the top of the village, then wound down on a narrow mostly-dirt-but-at-times-rocky path. We eventually made it to the school; as we came around the corner, everyone collected on the lawn and began clapping. For me, it was embarrassingly awkward, but others got a kick out of it. We took our place in chairs outside the school while dozens of children sat on hay beside us. They were so adorable, rolling over each other and trying to find a place to sit.
Two teenagers emceed the event, speaking in both English and Nepali so everyone could understand. There were four different dances before lunch (videos and pictures to follow), then we talked with people for about an hour over lunch. We spent another hour listening to the religious rituals and history of the community. One of the ceremonies for marriage is to either bring the families together in agreement, or, more frequently here, the girl runs away from her family without notice to live with the guy's family. If the girl's family sanctions the marriage, they will go to the other house and make arrangements. If not, the girl and guy have to go to a monk to officiate their marriage.
After the talk, there was another dance; after that dance, they asked us all to come up and dance with them. The girls who had just performed showed us how to do their moves, but we had no clue what to show them when they asked for American dance moves. The Macarena and a few other classics surfaced, but it left us all wishing Americans had a more unifying style of dance that we could have shown them.
We left after the group dance and stopped in Kalimpong, where we visited a paper making factory and ate samosas. Back at the farm, we had dinner and a raging dance party to 70s/80s music ensued. Anu was getting really into it and showed us how to dance to Punjabi songs. Another professor from Colby, Divya, visited us and joined in! She'll be teaching as a professor of ecological policy in the spring. Anu had also made amazing banana bread, which perfectly hit the spot before we saundered off to bed.
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