Wedding

My sister got married this past weekend, and it was a wonderful ceremony and a great time with family and friends. Soon I fly back to Singapore to defend my research proposal paper, which I am still working on writing. But at the moment I'm simply enjoying being with family and friends. Here's a picture of the bride walking up the aisle.

My Favorite Sign

This is my favorite sign (so far) in Shillong. It's right across from Swish cafe in Laitumkrah. I haven't tried the chicken popsicles yet, but maybe when I get back I will... =) "And Many More Wow Stuff!"

Pnar Church Service

I went to church with a friend in Jowai on Sunday, the Presbyterian Church there - it was pretty cool. I definitely didn't bring the right clothes to India for going to church - all the men wore suits and ties if they had them, but I didn't mind that too much. Although when you stand up to sing hymns and you're a head taller than the tallest person in the room, it can be a bit uncomfortable. Fortunately I'm used to being stared at from growing up one of the only white people in an all-black country. I think my friend was a bit more nervous to be sitting next to me, since she lives there and knows how little excuse people need to gossip.

The service was all in Khasi, which is the dominant language spoken in this area. The hymns were in Khasi and there was no percussion to keep time so the singing slowed down to an almost inexorable pace. It was neat to be able to pick out some words here and there, and my friend translated some of the verses for me so I could understand what I was singing. The orthography is relatively systematic.

In the evening we went to their cousin's home, which is up on a hill above the river on the outskirts of town (where the picture on the right was taken). We stayed for a home church service led by some of the church elders, which is where the real meat of the Christian culture in Jowai seems to be. Pretty much the whole service, except for a few songs and prayers, were in Pnar, including the sermon. Traditional instruments - a mandolin and tambourine - as well as clapping and harmonies kept the songs upbeat and lively.

Swish Cafe

So Swish is pretty much where I live in Shillong. It's a great space to hang out, has excellent coffee (thanks to the hotel-grade coffee maker you can see in the picture and a really nice roast), great food and friendly people. The owner happens to be my main Pnar contact and there are a lot of Pnar speakers that hang out there, so it's a great place to practice Pnar. I've also been coming here for the past couple weeks to work on translation. It can be a bit noisy, but I sit with a friend and we both wear headphones so we can play the sound file back bit-by-bit and translate each word and phrase. Swish is in Laitumkrah as well and can be a bit hard to find if you don't know where to look - but just ask any of the youngsters and they'll know where it is. The owner also happens to own the nightclub Tango, which is on the other side of town in Police Bazaar - a happening place on the weekends.

Cafe Shillong

Cafe Shillong is a great little cafe to visit if you are in Shillong. Good coffee, good food, and even wireless internet. I often go there if I want lunch/dinner and have some things to do online. In Laitumkrah, here's the view from one of my favorite spots on the balcony overlooking the street. Check it out next time you're in Shillong.

New Music for Pentecost

Our friend Bruce Benedict over at Cardiphonia has put together a compilation to celebrate Penteost, and 'Come Holy Spirit, Come' from our Pageant Music release '12 Gates' is the first tune. Check it out and donate to World Relief in Durham, NC to help refugees from all over the world.

India Week 3: Jowai

I recently got back to Shillong from Jowai, where I was gathering data on the main Pnar dialect. Jowai is the cultural and administrative centre of the Pnar community in Jiantia Hills, and I'll be focusing on learning to speak the variety of that place. I was able to connect with Ram, who is part of the Passah clan and very involved with the traditional religion. We were able to go down to the archery field where men shoot arrows at a target on a daily basis, and conduct some interviews about the origins of this event.

Ram also showed me around the area - on Sunday we went to a waterfall further south of Jowai, toward Bangladesh, which was a lot of fun. The walk down was a bit slippery, but once down the water was cool and inviting. I swam up behind the waterfall and waved to Ram and his cousins on the other side. Here's me and the waterfall in all its glory.

Language data-gathering was also productive. Besides the interviews, I was able to collect a couple wordlists and a retelling of The Pear Story, following a technique used by my advisor Alec Coupe for collecting language in context to make grammatical structures easier to identify. I'll be working on translating these texts in the coming weeks and in analyzing the wordlists to acquaint myself with the phonology of Pnar.

Mornings in Shillong

It's been raining a lot lately, being the monsoon season and all, which up here in the hills means it stays pretty cool. Apparently Cherrapunji, just south of where I am, is the rainiest place on earth, and near the end of monsoon season on a clear day you can look from there over the whole of Bangladesh, which looks like an ocean it's so flooded. But I digress.

When I wake up in the mornings here in Shillong I go up to the kitchen where Durga usually has some tea made - Indian chai, with spices and milk and sugar. Hard to beat when combined with toast and whatever else is available (leftover grilled pork, anyone?). On Sundays breakfast is more substantial with eggs and sausages and beans etc... I leave you with a picture of toned-down breakfast.

India Day 8-12: Nongrim Hills and Mowkyndeng

I did more exploring of Shillong recently, and I'll be posting a few photos in subsequent blogs to try and capture what I think are great views of the city. I'm staying with some friends in Lower Nongrim Hills and I often cross through Nongrim Hills to get to Laitumkrah where I meet friends for lunch/dinner or language research. The quickest (and least crowded) way to get there by walking is to climb the hill where people live in houses stacked on top of each other, pretty similar to what I saw in Norway. Here's a view looking back down the hill toward Lower Nongrim after climbing past a bunch of houses.

I took that photo before I went to work on the Pnar language spoken in Mowkyndeng village, a few hours away, where another friend was going home for holiday. I went with him for a week to learn what I could about this dialect and begin to document the language. I stayed with a wonderful family of vegetarians who kindly gave me fish and chicken, though secretly I loved their rice and vegetable dishes. Here's a picture of me and the family, along with all the children boarding at their house while they attend the mission school.

Mowkyndeng is probably best known as a mission station for the Catholic church in that area. When Catholic missionaries came to these hills they came directly to Raliang and were given land at Mowkyndeng to build their mission and start schools. Here's a picture of the church at Mowkyndeng, which has a lot of ties to the work of Don Bosco and the Salesians, a Catholic society that he founded. Early in June the relic of Don Bosco's body will be coming to the northeast of India and staying at the church in Mowkyndeng for a bit. I don't know if I'll make it to the viewing, but people from all over the area will be there.

India Day 7: Shillong

Ok, it's been a few days since the last post, partly because I didn't always have internet access, and partly because I didn't do much except meet people and get to know the town a bit better. Also I forgot to bring my camera places, so I didn't have much in the way of visuals to offer. But now I'm back.

Shillong is a pretty town perched on a series of hills in the centre of Meghalaya. The streets are narrow, winding, and the buildings are perched precariously on the hills, squeezed tightly together and sometimes built almost on top of each other. In many ways it reminds me of a village in Europe. Taxis, trucks, cars, motorcycles and little buses negotiate their way along the streets along with pedestrians - there aren't very many bikes around here.

I've been spending some of my time with Mary, a local resident who is from Jiantia Hills where they speak Pnar. I'm learning some Pnar from her and she is helping me connect with some other speakers, and hopefully I'll be going to Jowai and the Jiantia Hills district this week. It's been fun, and we've been meeting at Swish, a local cafe. It takes about 15 minutes to get there by car, going in a bit of a circle. I discovered that there's a shorter way to go, cutting the angle, along a much less busy path that is only about a 15 minute walk (and more picturesque). I should really get a map of Shillong.

India Day 2: Meghalaya

I woke up this morning after a good night's sleep at Hotel Jagannath (apparently this hotel is named after a Hindu sun god) and headed to the Calcutta airport to catch the plane for Shillong. We got off around the time listed on the itinerary and had a quick 1.5 hr flight to the airport which is actually 1 hour away from Shillong by car. Meghalaya is a beautiful part of India, in the highlands just north of Bangladesh, and below is a picture I took in front of the airport just after it rained.

It's pretty incredible how God works - I sat next to an elderly nun from Calcutta who was traveling to spend a month of the leave she gets every 3 years with her niece and nephews who live in Shillong. I talked with her on the flight and learned a lot from her about the area, and then helped her with her luggage and disembarking from the plane. She introduced me to her nephew when he arrived and they offered me a lift to Shillong, which I gladly accepted.

Along the way, her nephew John filled me in on some historical and political details of the area. It turns out that he is a local political figure very interested in the intersection of tribal and constitutional policy, and he knows a few of the people that I was hoping to get in touch with in the Khasi and Pnar communities. It was a great discussion and amazing to meet someone so well-connected in just my first hour in Meghalaya. Wow! I'll be getting in touch with him again once I get a SIM card for my phone.

I'm staying with my advisor's sister-in-law's family here in Shillong, and hope to connect with some Pnar speakers in the coming days, then head to Jowai and the Jiantia Hills at the end of the week to make more contacts. Today I also went to one of the local hot-spots, Cafe Shillong, which has great food and atmosphere. I'll be posting more about the town this week. It's been raining quite a bit for the last month, but is cool and peaceful - did I mention the northeast of India is beautiful?

India Day 1

Alright, I have internet access! I'm sitting in my hotel about 1km from the airport here in Calcutta (Kolkata) and thought I'd post a quick not before I crash. I didn't sleep much last night, what with the late flight to Delhi and then spending most of my layover trying to figure out where to go after I went through customs and was trying to re-check my luggage. I did have a whole row to myself on the Delhi-Calcutta leg, though, so I curled up and went to sleep as soon as we were airborne.

The Delhi airport is actually really nice. I think they've done a lot since my friends were through there last. The Calcutta airport is a little bit more like the airports of my childhood. Here's a shot of me standing at the one baggage claim in the terminal we flew into. What's funny about that is - see that fake grass? Just after I took that shot all us passengers watched as a cat jumped onto the turf, felt around and then took a dump right on the 'grass' before jumping off and going about its other business. Everyone around that saw it chuckled.

I then took a cab from the airport to my hotel. Here's the view from inside the cab. They use these really classic diesels, painted yellow - they look more like English cabs of the 1920s or so. And they feel about that old too. As usual, lane changes are frequent (lines are more of a suggestion) and the road gets shared by everyone. My cabbie took a few minutes for chai just after starting the engine, and then we took a slight detour on the side of the road so he could yell at someone - maybe for directions, it's hard to tell.

And finally, here's a picture of me in my bathroom at Jagganath hotel. It's not a very big hotel, but things are clean and after resetting the router we got some internet working. Gotta love it. You can see I (mostly) look none the worse for having slept so little. BUT I think I'll take a nap or something... tomorrow's another big day.

Getting Ready for India

The last week or so has been busy with getting ready to go to India. After talking things over with some of the other profs, my advisor suggested that instead of trying to confirm in May, I should plan on going through confirmation in the first week of August. This works for me, especially with my sister's wedding in July, back in the US. So I'm heading to India today for about 6 weeks, to learn as much about the language as I can and hopefully have something to present by August.

I moved out of my apartment on Friday, and my friend Nick is kindly letting me spend the weekend with him and storing my stuff at his place while I'm gone. Tonight my flight leaves at 11pm for Delhi, and today I'm just packing and printing off receipts and other things like my traveler's insurance. You never know what could happen, but I'm pretty positive it will be a grand adventure with no mishaps. If you think of me you can send up a prayer.

I'll try to update this space with photos and information about my trip, depending on what the internet connection is like. Of course, with today's internet-connected world, I might even be able to update when I'm in remote villages ('remote' here being defined as "physically hard to get to"). Unfortunately, friends of mine have been through the Delhi airport and said it wasn't a great experience - I have something like a 6 hour layover there... ah well.

May Day

Here in Singapore there is an observed Labour Day holiday today, since May Day officially happened on Sunday, May 1st. Labour Day also happens to be the day when the government begins distributing its "Grow and Share", package - much like the tax breaks those in the USA received last year under the economic incentives package. While the package itself benefits individual Singaporeans (who wouldn't want $800-$100 in extra money?), some Singaporeans have wondered if this isn't just an incentive to vote for the current ruling party, since general elections are happening May 7th. The timing of the payout is a bit suspicious, reminiscent of the recent payouts that citizens of Bahrain received from their rulers.

Politics in Singapore

Singapore has a unique political system: it is a representative democracy in which the same party has been in power since 1959 (51 years!). Either that means everyone likes the current government, or the ruling party has taken pains to write the rules in their favor. Perhaps a bit of both. Some people point to the Group Representation Constituencies as a re-drawing of boundaries to consolidate constituencies which the current ruling party, the People's Action Party, believes it might otherwise lose. Sounds like the age-old battle between Republicans and Democrats on voting lines, eh? Except in Singapore there is no clear opposition - just one party that runs the government.

Don't get me wrong - the PAP has done wonderful things for Singapore, as increases in immigrants to Singapore indicate. But many Singaporeans view the current party as complacent, pointing to increasing pay raises that officials voted for themselves - many times higher than the average salary. With an average of around $2 million, according to IMF and The Economist, political leaders in Singapore get paid the same as many CEOs or sports stars.

What makes this year's general elections slightly different than previous ones is that many more seats are being contested and quality candidates are being put forward by other parties. Response has been quite good for many of these candidates despite the rule that limits campaigning to the 9 days before voters cast their vote (a policy that seems to favor the incumbents) - choosing not to vote is against the law here. Of the 84 seats available, in fact, on May 7th all 84 are open to contest. While most Singaporeans believe the current party will stay in power, many also want Singapore to have a decent opposition party that will bring true democratic debate to the country's decision-making process. In this they hold the sentiment of the middle-aged Chinese Singaporean I talked to:

"I want the PAP to win, but not by too large a margin. We want to give them enough opposition so that they're no longer complacent and start paying attention to the needs of Singaporeans rather than their own interest."

We'll find out what happens when Singaporeans go to the polls on May 7th.

New Music Video

I recently decided I needed software for video editing that was a bit more powerful, so I invested in Final Cut Express, which has quite a few more options for video editing than iMovie 08 or the FlipShare software that came with my MinoHD camera. For example, I couldn't previously fast-forward clips or reverse them, and I had no easy way to line them up and cut between them, or to color-correct and filter. It also means that I'll hopefully be planning my videos a bit better - not just shooting from the hip - and maybe getting a few more people involved in shots.

I am still learning the software, but here's my first project: a music video of one of the new songs I've been working on recording with SoundFarm here in Singapore. It's called "Hold Me" and I wrote it awhile back (I began writing it in 2006 and probably finished it in 2010) but haven't played it a whole lot. So you may have heard it live, but maybe not. In any case, here it is below - hope you enjoy it!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c-aeIj6VLpQ

Bob Dylan and Imogen Heap

This past weekend I went to Rock and Roots, a festival put on by Timbre, the same group that had me play shows in late January. It was a pretty fabulous concert. The two performers I most wanted to see were Bob Dylan and Imogen Heap.

Bob Dylan played all his well-known songs and had a fabulous band. Seeing him at this age made me wish I had seen him when he was younger - he could barely sing, and his speaking voice was actually more comprehensible. When he spoke verses instead of trying to sing them, I could here the words and tell which song he was singing. And then I could sing along. Fortunately his backing band really did support him (such as when he coudn't quite play that guitar solo). He just went from one song to the next - no chitchat, no interaction.

Imogen Heap, on the other hand, was much more interactive. You could tell she was working the crowd and we all loved it. From the beginning she made it clear that we were part of the show, not just spectators but people who were there because we liked her music, and she respected that. And she talked to us as such.

In a way, you could say that these two performers represented different generations. Bob Dylan more an older generation for whom there was a pretty clear divide between the performer and the audience, and Imogen Heap the younger generation which acknowledges the similarities between performer and audience. But maybe good performers have always been the latter - maybe Bob Dylan was more like that 20 years ago. I wish I had seen him then.

Here's some video of the shows: http://youtu.be/_1L4gT9YZVo

Long Time no See

It's been a long time since I updated this blog. We took a break from school for a week, I had my birthday and then life got crazy. That's why.

So here's a picture of me eating Chili Crab on my birthday at the restaurant 'Big Eater' (see the sign behind me) which is a 5 minute walk from my room in the HDB (a blockof flats constructed by the Housing Development Board here in Singapore). Chili Crab is pretty famous for being a particular Singapore specialty, and let me tell you in was awesome! I don't know what they put in that sauce, but it is really flavorful. and spicy - if you don't like spicy try another specialty.

As for the craziness, it has to do a bit with my program. In this PhD program they usually give you 2 years in which to confirm. That is, you have to give a presentation on your research to show that you are capable of completing the program. After the presentation you begin your official research and get a slight boost in pay.

Well, I mentioned that usually you have 2 years to confirm. I've been here for nearly 6 months and my advisor asked me to confirm this May. It's cool that they think I can do it, and I don't see any real difficulties, but it just means a lot more work. So I haven't had much time or energy to blog. BUT, as my friend Yolanda mentioned, people read these things - so that gives me more encouragement to write. =) I'll do my best.

Lunar New Year and Chingay Parade

A few weeks ago I went down to Chinatown with my friend Nick and we wandered around. It was pretty crowded, mostly because the night was New Year's Eve - the lunar new year, that is. You can watch this short video as we shuffled along with the crowds and listened to the sellers marketing their products to the masses.

Last weekend we went to watch Chingay 2011 near the Esplanade. We didn't get tickets, but could see a lot from the parade route. Chingay is a celebration of ethnic heritage begun centuries ago by the Chinese overseas (those who migrated from China to many different parts of Asia). While traditionally a celebration of Chinese heritage, the event has since expanded to include multinational and mutliethnic groups from all over the world - at least in Singapore. Here's a bit longer video of the event, which was a lot of fun! My favorite part was the incredible energy of 2,000 youth putting on the same moves to the music as they danced past.

Thoughts on Learning

As a PhD student here at NTU, part of my scholarship is to teach or TA once I've completed my coursework and passed confirmation. NTU is beginning to focus on training teachers more, and particularly in ways that encourage students to learn. One recommended course I'm taking now is part of that initiative, and we had our first session yesterday, taught by Peter Looker.

One of the best parts of the class was when Dr. Looker asked us to think about and define what learning is. I had a bit of a brain-wave and came up with this definition, definitely guided and influenced by my experiences. Here it is, and I'll unpack it a bit more below.

learn (v.) : To discover something new about reality. (Hiram's Definitions)

Part 1: Discovery

Learning, to me, is primarily about discovery. When you learn how to use your phone, when you learn how to drive a car or how to use a phrase properly in language or how to do a math problem, you are discovering it. Discovery also implies a self-driven process, the involvement of the person who is learning. Learning in this sense is not a passive, osmotic process, but one which requires engagement on the part of the learner. People who truly learn are in some sense pursuing the object in question, seeking the boundaries that flesh out the subject of study.

Part 2: Newness

When we discover something, by the act of discovery it is new to us. It may have been there all along, but until we discover it for ourselves it is as if it didn't really exist. The act of discovery focuses our attention on it and brings it into our field of vision, making it salient to our experience. A good example Dr. Looker gave was when he bought a new car - a white Fiat. When he was driving it home he began to notice all the other white Fiats on the road, something he had not noticed earlier in the day.

Part 3: Reality

The new thing that we discover is always grounded in reality, particularly the reality that we experience personally. The discovery is not about someone else's experience, but how that information connects with us and our frame of reference. We do not live in someone else's shoes, therefore we cannot experience both what their reality is and our own reality. We may be able to imagine someone's experience, but ultimately we cannot know it, we can only share a similar experience. The learning process is one in which our discoveries are integrated into our complete frame of reference and worldview (or multiple frames and worldviews) in a conceptual map. We work primarily with this conceptual map or network to interpret the information we receive - learning is the process of linking, re-linking, and creating new links in this network.

The question in our session then became: how do we teach in such a way that students are able to engage with the information presented and are able to discover it for themselves? I'm really looking forward to dealing with this question over the coming weeks, and gaining some tools to help others learn.

Shows at Timbre

This week my friend Nii and I have been playing music at Timbre music spots around Singapore, and really enjoying the collaboration. It has really been a fantastic week - seeing old friends and making new ones, and having a blast on stage. Here's some footage (thanks Ben Low!) of 'Play Switch', performed on Tuesday at Timbre's Substation venue. Nii really brings the African percussion to this performance - so sweet!