So...after Jackson had his nap Saturday afternoon, we bundled him up and headed down to the Perry Meridian Academy, which is attached to Perry Meridian Middle School, which is down on the south side on the northwest corner of 135 and Stop 11 (although technically I think Stop 11 changes names once you get west of 135). Their gym was packed, almost entirely with Burmese people, and so many of them were happy and smiling and clearly having a very good time. We got into the gym just as the speeches part of the afternoon was ending, so we didn’t stay in our seats for very long. People started clearing out, and we made our way to the cafeteria, where traditional food from Burma was being served.
Amy had a bowl of noodles with bits of hard-boiled egg in a light chicken broth, and I had a bowl of hominy and tripe (yes...tripe) in a thin broth of indeterminate origin. Each bowl also contained a deep-fried, salty cornbread dumpling. Served with these soups was a little bowl with salt, wedges of lime, and a small amount of an extremely spicy seasoning that contained chiles, lemongrass, and cilantro. Say what you will about people from Southeast Asia - they don’t screw around when it comes to heat in their food. The tripe was interesting at first - the texture was something akin to calamari, and it tasted vaguely of beef - but I found Amy’s bowl of noodles and hard-boiled egg more enjoyable in the end. The cornbread dumplings were very good, and the chile mixture (not pictured) was very good - though exremely spicy and not for the faint of heart.
We repaired back to the gym after we ate and were treated to a fashion show consisting of girls in elaborate dresses and boys in fancy sport coats parading up and down the stage; a dance in which the girls got to display some fancy footwork as they danced around and over a series of long poles that boys, situated at each end, were tapping rhythmically on the floor; and finally some wrestling, where the two opponents each had to take hold of a belt worn by the other and attempt to effect a takedown. Unfortunately, each takedown brought cheers and whistles from the sizable crowd, and all the noise scared poor little Jackson, so we had to beat a hasty retreat before the wrestling got too far along.
It was a little bit hot and cramped in the gym, with that many people, but it was still a lot of fun. I took about a million pictures, but my modem isn’t working and playing well with others and my Internet connection has been sketchy for the last couple of weeks, so I may not be able to post the pictures until I pick up my new laptop and get it set up and connected to the Interwebs on Monday night. However, I can post a link to a recent story in Poets & Writers magazine, about the state of literature in Burma; it's not a pretty picture. On a short list of the poorest countries with the most oppressed people on Earth, Burma would be at or near the top. Every word of every page of printed matter in Burma must be approved by government censors. There can be no defense of a such a policy, nor of an illegitimate faux governmental entity that supports such a policy. Quite a lot of Burmese people shook my hand and thanked me for coming to the Chin National Day celebration on Saturday - but we are the ones who should be thanking them, for having the courage still to smile, and to share their culture with the uncultured people of Indiana, who desperately need all the lessons they can get in diversity and tolerance.
And we can hope that humanity will continue to evolve, to the point that eventually the pox that is conservative thinking will be exterminated. Only then will freedom ring, and perhaps one day Myanmar will become Burma once again.
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