Belfast Mela

I've been feeling a bit nostaligic this weekend, for all things pre-Belfast (meaning all things settled and comfortable), so this afternoon was a good bit of medicine. B, M and I went to the Belfast Mela in the Botanic Garden and I felt like I was at a festival back in the San Francisco Bay area. It's an annual festival for all things Indian (and a few things Chinese, Thai, Japanese). I ate AMAZING Indian food, saw a Bollywood dance team, some sort of wannabe Indian street band from Edinburgh (with two Indian looking drums, two snares, a trumpet, trombone, sax and bagpipes...). I was a bit dissapointed by the lack of crafters or artisans, but there were lots of community organizations seemingly looking to provide info to a minority population. The longest lines were at the tarot readers and henna painters, and a big old crowd gathered to watch the dog show done by the PSNI of agility, obedience and attack (right, I know, this isn't very Indian). It's just always good to be in a large crowd, feeling involved in the community.







We tried to get coffee afterward. The sign said to sit and relax and someone would be to take our order. We left after a long time and lots of people sitting way after us and ordering way before us and asking someone to take our order and still nothing. I don't think I've actually walked out of a place before...customer service is not the focus over here. So we found a Starbucks.

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I went back to the neighborhood church this morning. I remembered that I did really like it when I went with L. I love the worship (and there's a possibility of singing with a worship team), and I love the effort they're putting into focusing on the local community, Ireland and the world. It's so refreshing to be in a church that's not forgotten that there's a big world outside of its door.