Shillong December 26-27

On Saturday December 26 the special Christmas events continued. But first in the morning I went to Troop Bazaar to get some more photo prints made and then went to an internet place near the PCI building, where I bumped into Sony. I went with her to the nearby hostel for women that she is in charge of; the residents, mostly college students, were all away back home in Mizoram over the Christmas holiday, so Sony had moved into a room at the PCI building for a few days. Sony was a classmate of Zovi and Terini, my HMI student, at Aizawl Theological College in Mizoram.

Sony at the entrance to her hostel building

In the afternoon I went to a 1:30 church service, after which there was a fellowship meeting where some community orphans performed.

The orphans

Then came the big annual community dinner at the church. The meal consisted of rice with various chunks of mystery meat and innards that I did not find very appetizing.

The line up for the community dinner

Zovi on the left and Sony on the right with me at the community dinner

After the dinner, Zovi, Sony and I joined Rev. Pachuau’s family for further chatting in his apartment.

The next day December 27 was a Sunday, so there was the usual church service at 10:00. Over the past week, I had been to more than enough church services, all of which were completely in Mizo. But during the fellowship times, I had a number of interesting conversations with church members who spoke English well, and everybody was very welcoming.

The Presbyterian Mizo Church in Shillong

After the service I joined the fellowship for a while before I went to Zovi’s place, where we chatted for a while, later joined by Sony.

The back side of Zovi’s place

After we had lunch, we three went to the PCI building, where I paid my guest room bill, while they went shopping. At 4:00 we went back to Zovi’s place, some 15 minutes walk from the PCI building, where they cooked dinner. At one point the accumulating steam inside the chili peppers caused them to explode, with a couple landing on the floor. The exploding chili peppers released pungent fumes that provoked a bout of coughing and sneezing until the fumes dissipated.

Zovi and Sony cooking the exploding chili peppers

After the dinner, we watched an Indian league football match on TV. It seems that a couple of Mizo players are on one of the teams, so Zovi is a fan. We then said our goodbyes and I returned to the PCI building and packed for my early departure next morning.