Today my student Touy came over. She was one of those students that you see in the back of the class and think to yourself, oh no, she's going to hate my class. At least, that is what I thought the first day; actually, maybe the first month! :) But then she started coming over every Saturday and we started feeling more comfortable together. Well, now she's one of the brightest spots in my class and we have so much fun together. I think a lot of times we see someone's face and automatically assign a meaning to it when they might just be feeling shy or something more benign like that.
So today she called me and asked if she could come visit before going home for Lao New Year (starting on Friday). She came over alone (that's pretty unusual and is kind of a sign of feeling more comfortable, so I felt happy she was comfortable enough to come alone). Sone was home too so we sat around and chatted for a while, eating papaya salad. We had decorated Easter eggs last weekend and they were on the table so she asked about those. That led into a conversation about Easter and what it means, which was pretty cool.
Then somehow we started talking about spirits. Spirits are a huge aspect of Lao culture - everyone has a spirit house at their home and they want to appease the spirits to keep something bad from happening - very animistic. Well, it turns out, Touy told us that her grandmother takes care of a spirit. Yes, you heard me right - she takes care of a spirit. Sometimes when the spirit comes to visit her grandmother will drink alcohol with the spirit or eat with the spirit. Her friends come over and join sometimes. They use the same word in Lao for taking care of a spirit as they would for taking care of an animal or a child - liang.
That was a new one for me. Never knew that people actually take care of individual spirits here.
Sone then said she knew of a lady near her home that had actually married a spirit. They had a wedding ceremony and everything. Then on the special day for Buddhists (it's every 15 days...based on the cycle of the moon), this woman will go to another room in the house and sleep with the spirit instead of sleeping with her husband. They believe she has an alligator spirit so they fill the room with water and she plays in the water with the spirit, which is unseen. But at times the spirit will enter the woman and then the spirit speaks out of her.
Recently read about the man who had many spirits in him and met JC who then cast the spirits into the pigs. Sometimes hearing stuff like this makes me think I'm living back in those times. But it's a good reminder that things really don't change all that much. The other big guy isn't super creative and has used the same techniques to have power over people since NT times.
I used to think spirits were a myth. They didn't have power and shouldn't really be regarded at all. I now think differently. They are real, but so is He.
They want to destroy life, but He wants to bring freedom and redemption.
Oh how to be a conduit of that here?
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