Wanna talk a little about the strange cultural differences we experienced here over Christmas. It was a bit of a strange letdown ... in our culture, one (at least me) looks forward to gift giving ... seeing something you made or something you put thought into buying received, enjoyed and maybe even liked. It is no matter that the receiver doesn't have a reciprocal gift ... the giving is the fun part of the Yuletide season for me. We put some thought into small gifts that the kids couldn't get here ... Lego friends for the girls and some action figures for the boys...identical 'girlie' things for my sewing group girls ... some homemade gifts for Myrtz and Jay and the Belize calendars for the other families. The strange thing was ... people came to collect their gifts ... no one opened them with us ... the sewing girls said 'thank you Gramma Janie' ... the others, children and families alike didn't even say thank you! Myrtle and Jay sat with us and opened theirs ... I had made place mats for all the family plus made napkin rings when I got here from bamboo with individual names on them ... Myrtle said, these are for the restaurant and we haven't seen them since then ... not used, no individual napkins used and the only thing I saw in use is the lemongrass basket I made her ... Jay and Myrtle did say thank you and wished that they could have given something in return which is never necessary, but the rest left me bereft. A friend, Sheril, asked me the other day how our Christmas was and I told her of my disappointment ... she said 'well I know Shelly's girls loved theirs' ... (two of the sewing girls) ... I said that was nice to know, but it would have been nicer if they had let me know. Around here they chalk it up to cultural difference ... it feels like disrespect to me ... just saying. Here they made a big show with the Christmas variety show and how it was a Belize Christmas and how it was about christian ideals, and yet the biggest thing in the village was about the 'bhrom' dancing, call and response chaos while drinking as much as one can for two days! ... not my idea of a spiritual time of year, be it Christian, Pagan, Wiccan or otherwise. I'm all for soaking up culture ... they talk about respect for their elders and on the surface that may be true ... Gramma Janie, Miss Janie, Mister Zane, Grampa Zane, Miss Myrtle, Mr Jay ... and yet, when I tried to say something about a way to plant something ... I was told not in this culture ... no openness for other's knowledge ... although that is untrue with the reaction to Zane ... he is very accepted. Also, around here everything is on Pagan Standard Time which is frustrating when you try to plan. Mel, the missionary wife was in charge of the Holiday variety show ... the participants were an hour late arriving and with no excuse ... Mel and I kinda bonded over that ... She and John (he's my IT computer guy here in the Village) have become more friendly ... we just don't approach the subject of religion and faith and we are fine.
Well, guess that's enough of my ranting for now ... do really miss my spiritual core group (you know who you are) ... don't miss the drama that occurs there, but the core of your strength I dearly miss. I think one of my raison d' etre's is, perhaps, to show good Christian people that we Wiccan's are ok!
So, am going to inport some of the pictures (through the screen) from my window ... will identify the birds later when it stops raining and I get the book I bought last time for Jay. the first two of these should have flipped but, somehow came through on their side ... sorry ... these are especially for you Lisa!
No comments:
Post a Comment