Valentine's Day (and all that it entails)

So Y'all know how Valentine's Day in the states is sooooo totally Hallmark, and it conveniently falls on the same day as singles awareness day every year? Not so in Bushbuckridge. Here, it is a big deal. Everyone gets a valentine, even if just for the day, and the entire day is festive. For the first time in a few years the day fell on Sunday, even more special...

So first my fellow IHPers living in the same homestay as me, my host cousin, and I went to Church, and many people were dressed in red, black, and white. There was even one woman in what looked like a red prom dress. Church was an experience worth describing. One of the larger structures in the village, the church was painted white, with benches of a dark brown color inside for everyone to sit. The congregation I was in valued singing as a means of praise, and multiple choirs performed. There was the youth choir, the teen choir, and the women's choir that performed throughout the service. Also there was the main choir of five. ALL of the choirs were really good. Then there was the sermon... They are in between pastors, and the retired school principal was preaching. He preached for over an hour. Not just that, it was one of those "back in the day..." sermons, lamenting the fall of religiosity and hoping for renewed faith of the masses... One of those sermons where everyone got to learn a very revisionist version of the past from an overzealous speaker. But church was nice nonetheless.

So after church there was this big gathering in front of a bottle shop (where they sell booze) that lasted for hours. Traditional dance troupes performed one after another and people schmoozed. That was also nice, but as the afternoon went on people started to get drunk, and we left as it was kinda sketch and some of the people on our program were getting a bit more attention than they wanted from drunk locals.

Which brings us to dinner. There is a white guy who lives in our village part time named Jim. He is from upstate NY and still is a US citizen who resides there and has a car wash business. He got a degree from Texas AM for Renewable Resource Management and works with water in the surrounding villages. He has a flush toilet, a shower, running water, a green and trimmed front lawn, and A POOL and HOT TUB. This is in a place where water scarcity is a huge issue and people drag drums to local taps to fill with water and carry back to their homes. He is like 70 or something and has a 1 year old son with a local woman, in addition to having grown up kids in the states. He's probably corrupt and as a group the people in my village and I that were there were kind of on edge. Another matter, he has employees that cook, clean, and care for his home. Let's just say he was generally offensive and somewhat repulsive, though interesting as a specimen. We all left early, befuddled by the encounter, and kind of pissed off at him.

So all in all I would say it was one of the most informative days I've had in Bushbuckridge so far. I really got a taste for what life was like and how people interacted, even if that interaction involves drunk conduct towards people I know. The day had its downsides, sure, but you work through whatever is thrown your way, move past it, and that's what is important.

So how did you all spend Valentine's day?