Day 21, Colva, Goa [Monday 24th December 2007]
Previous day: Day 20, Margao, Goa [Sunday 23rd Deember 2007]
Next day: Day 22, Benaulim, Goa [Tuesday 25th December 2007 - Christmas Day]
We lay on the beach most of the day, then come back to our room for a siesta. Around 9pm we go out for a wander. At the Colva Monday Night Market they are selling lots of tat, sarongs, t-shirts, fags and incense. They also have a little stage with a bloke playing saxophone. Behind him is a woman who is possibly his mother. We go for a couple of beers, one of which we drink from the bottle on the front porch of a beer shop. We are served by a young boy and his granny. Granny is blind and can't locate the bottle opener. Inside, in the gloom, men are playing cards and drinking whisky.
We go to St. John The Baptist church for midnight mass. When we get there it is empty, although rows of chairs have been set out in the church's courtyard, and an altar is set up in front of the church. A couple of people are seated and waiting. We go for another beer, and a toilet break.
On returning the place is absolutely packed full of incredibly smartly dressed people. Men and boys are in dark suits and polished shoes. Women and girls are in skirts and dresses, some of them quite glitzy. It's standing room only, so we stand at the back. Mass is in Konkani, although one reading and parts of the sermon are in English. Wild dogs roam the aisles, and at one point one wanders onto the platform holding the altar, until it is chased away by an altar boy. Some music is sweetly sung by a small choir. It has that magical otherness of familiar Christian worship music being played in a tropical climate.
We go for a snack - veg pakora and methi paratha - and then walk home at 2am down dark lanes, amid fireworks and crackers, and passers by wish us happy Christmas.
Next day: Day 22, Benaulim, Goa [Tuesday 25th December 2007 - Christmas Day]
Previous day: Day 20, Margao, Goa [Sunday 23rd Deember 2007]