WEDNESDAY - THURSDAY, August 13th & 14th
I am so frustrated that we keep missing festivals and events here. That's part of what is amazing about Penang is all of the cultural events. What are we doing here if we keep missing them all, and why isn't anyone from George's work letting us know about them? I called George at work to yell about my frustration because I just found out that there is a Hungry Ghost festival and it looks like it may have already happened. Turns out, it's the whole month. That's a relief! Now we still have time to go see one or more of the nightly Chinese operas that are all over town.
The Hungry Ghost Festival is sort of the Buddhist equivalent of Halloween or Day of the Dead. There are lots of superstitions about staying out past midnight and such, and there is some ancestor worship involved. Apparently they burn paper maché stand ins for material goods to send on to their deceased loved ones - e.g. money, cell phones, cars, and houses. George asked his coworkers if the cell phones would be useful to dead people in the afterlife. What kind of cell-phone service would they get there?
This sounds like an awesome and interesting tradition and I am so excited to see some Chinese opera performed in the streets! I found a schedule of operas, so now it's a matter of figuring out where these places are.
In other news, I am starting to paint again! I am working on that painting of the Faroes that anyone who has been to my house has seen. I started it in 2001 or 2002 (yikes!) and never finished it. Now it's getting kind of close to complete.
There was blank canvas in the bottom right corner, I just didn't want to finish those boats! And now that I'm trying to, I know why! What a pain! So much detail and my skewed/flattened perspective is making it hard to paint all those lines and angles. Anyway, I have paint on my hands again and I love it.
The bamboo blinds in our laundry room broke. This big old roll of blinds just broke off and dropped to the ground (inside the balcony, don't worry, no one outside was in danger). I am glad it didn't fall on me! That thing is huge! The maintence guy came by to look at it and he wants to close in the room with sliding-glass windows.
I have mixed feelings about it. He says I can still open the windows fully for drying laundry, but having an al fresco laundry room was part of my unique experience -- even if I don't love it, I'm not sure I want it taken away.
Sorry, can't say the same for the geckos or ants. I don't think I'll get sentimental if someone comes over to rid me of them. I would kick my heels with glee. In fact, they upset me so much that -- even though I killed my back saving the lives of hundreds of tadpoles as a kid (I was that obsessed with animals and believed so strongly in the value of all life) -- I have become sadistic and delight in the fact that hundreds of ants can be swept away with the food they're swarming around. I love to watch them be shoved around by my mighty broom! (Insert audio clip of evil laugh here.)
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