Cultural Explosion!

On Friday, John, Jenny, Rainpui and I went into the city to do a little shopping. First we went to the closest thing Aizawl has to a mall. I only bought a pair of earrings there. Almost all of the stores are for women's blouses and shoes. The blouses are very Chinese/Japanese looking and aren't exactly my taste. The shoes were very cute, but pretty much the same price as shoes in the US ($20-$50ish). Also, I didn't buy any because NO ONE had shoes my size hahaha (I'm 8.5). Oh well. :) After going to the "mall" we went to the market. I'll let the pictures of me shopping explain the rest of the day...

The fabric hanging up are skirts. Women wear a skirt called a
puan (pronounced pwon) almost every day. I bought a few
that I can wear to chapel and to church. They wrap around,
so I'm still learning the art of keeping them up lol.

John, Rainpui, and I huddle under umbrellas. It rain the whole time
we were shopping. Try handling an umbrella, a purse, a camera,
and a piece of pineapple at the same time!

Here are some shoes in the marketplace. Like I said, none fit haha.
No Cinderella story for me here. :/

There were so many things to look at and buy at the market!
The colors and textures were amazing. Even though I
totally stood out, I couldn't help taking a lot of pictures. :)

Peppers anyone?

Beans, mushrooms, spices,
you name it, they probably had it.

Weighing the potatoes the good
ol'-fashioned way.

On Saturday I relaxed. This is the living room part of the guest
house. It's simple, but I'm grateful for the TV and a place
to chill. (I'm wearing a casual puan in this picture.)

On Sunday, Jenny joined the five missionary students
in singing a song in a tribal dialect. (She's the one in
the yellow puan.)

On Saturday I had the opportunity to eat with a professor and his family (the one with the adorable little girl Mercy from my previous post). I really enjoyed talking to him about the church and about Mizoram. Besides learning about the church environment, we talked about a few other things that might interest you about Mizoram. First of all, in Mizoram, there is a bride price. I had read about it before I came, but I thought it would be nice to hear a Mizo person explain it to me. Before marriage, the grooms family pays at least 400 rupees (less than $8) as a bride price. The price has been the same for decades. Apparently sometimes families agree on more, or the brides family gets money from the grooms parents, grandparents, cousins, aunts, uncles, etc. and it ends up being way more than 400 rupees. He said that it wouldn't be taboo if the bride price wasn't paid, as long as both families agreed upon it, but that he's never heard of that happening before. At this point, it sounds like it's more custom than anything.

Something else of interest is that every 50 years, on the dot, a certain bamboo flowers in Mizoram. The flowers attract rats, which eat away a large portion of the crops, causing widespread famine. In 1959, since there wasn't a united government in Mizoram, a large and devastating famine occurred. Many people died, others left for neighboring countries/lands. The famine occurred again in 2009, but this time the government was more prepared. Unfortunately, it still wasn't enough. Small villages, particularly in the southern part of the state (away from Aizawl, the capitol), saw the effects of the rat infestation. Every 50 years... isn't that interesting?

My grandpa wanted to know more about TV here. There are about 60 stations, half of which (or maybe slightly over half) are in English. The rest are mostly in Mizo; a few are in Hindi, and one is in Urdu. They have BBC world news, ESPN, two stations which play US shows (The Mentalist, Desperate Housewives, America's Next Top Model, cooking shows (reality TV), Survivor, How I Met Your Mother, Full House etc. It's a pretty random assortment lol), Disney, Cartoon Network, Discovery Channel, VH1, and a few movie channels. It's usually enough to find something to watch. The only problem is that occasionally the provider's power goes out. That means no TV for anyone. haha. Also, somehow TV came up when I was talking to the professor over dinner. He said that Mizo people watch too much TV. It's definitely the center of the house here, but with limited options in terms of technological entertainment or any entertainment for that matter, I understand how that could be a problem.

PS Romcom stands for Romantic Comedy. :)