Getting Married in Style

I think at some point, every girl in America has discussed with her friends or thought about what her wedding dress will look like, what flowers she wants to carry, the groom, the ring, and so on. No surprise, weddings here look different. The bride doesn’t wear white (that would be the color of mourning here), red is the traditional color. And it's a big deal because as a general rule, married women wear saris, unmarried women wear shalwar suits. The bride doesn’t get a manicure or pedicure with her wedding party, she gets mehendi painted on from her fingertips up her arms with them. Her dad doesn’t walk her down the aisle to her groom; it’s customary for a lot of people to come make a ruckus outside both party’s residences, and then have a giant party together. Arranged marriages are still very common, so she may know next to nothing about the person she is marrying. I think a lot of Americans would say that early 20s is pretty early to get married. It’s not unusual here for brides to be around 15, give or take a couple years. So differences galore. When my language is better (aka when I can form a complex sentence), I'll have to start asking women if they thought about the day that they would don a red sari, get wedding mehendi done, listen to people bang on drums and shoot off fireworks outside their house, and spend life with someone they may barely know yet.

This took place outside our flat about 10 am on a weekday. After about 15 or 20 minutes, all the people marched/danced off to some unknown location, then reappeared in mass later that day to celebrate in a large tent about 100 meters down from us. This continued very late (and very loudly!) into the night.

Also, earlier this week, a few of us got caught in a gully (small residential street) in the middle of a wedding parade! There was a car decorated with flowers with the groom inside, fireworks and sparklers, lots of dancing and loud music, and everything was being captured by a video camera. We tried to sneak through without making a scene, but every head turned our direction, and then the lights and camera turned our direction. Oops! There have been a ton of weddings around town lately, there must be a "wedding season" here too!

PS. Watch for the kids that gradually becomore interested in waving to the foreigners than in the drum playing and dancing.

wedding party from Kayla on Vimeo.

Ungratefulness

Where I am currently studying language, the power is less than reliable. There is “load shedding” (scheduled power outages) from 10am to 2pm everyday. That is the one thing you can count on. One day we went without power for over 10 hours, which isn’t technically normal, but not really abnormal either. Needless to say, when the AC is on, you don’t take it for granted. So last night, I lay in bed with the AC and fan on. Almost like America. I was almost asleep and in my stupor, I vaguely recall hearing and seeing sparks flying and thinking I should do something. A transformer blown (I’m assuming? I know next to nothing about electricity). Fantastic. It’s after midnight, it is around 100 degrees, there’s no air circulating in my room, and I’m sweating profusely. I really just want to go to sleep. What to do?

I opened up all the windows and doors in the room. Still too hot to sleep. Next thought: Well, we do have a balcony. Yes, it’s made of marble. Yes, a monkey could appear at any moment and I would have no idea what to do. But a breeze does blow by every now and then. It would be cooler and I might be able to fall asleep. Enter experience that would never happen in America. I marched outside with my sheet and pillow, briefly checked the balcony for monkeys, and from 2 am to sunrise (around 4:45), slept outside. I couldn’t believe what goes on in the streets at 5am, when I’m usually (or, um, always) still in my room unaware of the outside world. Kids playing in the street. Men walking around singing and doing worship. People talking to each other. Horns honking. Horses, cows, pigs, donkeys, sheep, and other various animals out and about on the streets. Who knew all this was going on?! At 5am?!

Then around 10 am, two men on separate bikes each holding one end of a bamboo ladder arrived in front of the flat. They were here to fix our electrical lines and were delighted to have two white girls watching them.

In the mist of my annoyance about the lack of air circulating, God used the time I couldn’t sleep to remind me of other things. Like how his name is worthy to go to a new land and experience minor “inconveniences.” That sometimes when I have things I want (the comfort of an AC and a soft bed), I forget his grace in things like the cool night time breeze, the soft sunlight of the morning, and the noises and sights that I just wouldn’t see in America at 5am. And in the midst of this, he reminded me who is he, how big he is, and how good he is, in ways that I don’t often think of.

Browsing at the market

I've been meaning to film one of the busiest little walkways at a market we frequent. Usually it's so crowded we walk in the street to avoid the commotion, because one look at our white faces causes proprietors to jump up, move in our direction, and say "hallo! hallo! madam!!" If we do walk through, I put on my sunglasses and my game face (which basically involves ignoring all the men). But this day, we took off our sunglasses and slowed our pace. I think it must have been a holiday, because the place was practically deserted. Yes, Americans, I know you see several people in the video, but this is a calm, peaceful stroll compared to what this walkway normally looks like. Enjoy.

P.S. Sorry the quality is so grainy!

market from Kayla on Vimeo.

A little piece of America

So lately I've had some days where I'm really missing America. I don't want to quit what I'm doing here and go back there right now, but I miss familiar things. Things like my family, my friends, driving my own car, Wal-Mart, getting things done in an quick and efficient manner...just to name a few. So when I got another package from America, I was excited. REALLY excited. I knew it was from my parents. Then I opened it and was pleasantly surprised to find some artwork from two of my favorite kiddos. I think it makes a nice addition to our refrigerator.



I was also glad to see the bobby pins, card, pictures, and planner that my parents sent, but I didn't figure they (or anyone else) would be excited about seeing a picture of hair pins or a calendar on here. So thanks, Riewe girls! Your artwork is in my kitchen all the way in Asia! And it makes me happy!

Texas

This weekend I went to a small, rural village. One man there spoke a little bit of English. He asked me where I was from. I told him. "Ooohhh, Texas big! Texas famous!" My teammate replied that she was from Louisiana. "Oh! Loo-shee-anna small! They neighbors! Texas! Oil!" He smiled at me so big and was so proud of himself that he knew something about the place I'm from, and was rather pleased at my astonishment over this fact. I know Texans have a reputation for being proud of their state and all (or maybe more with a negative connotation, like pompous or arrogant). But come on! I was proud when an old man from a village knew my home state and declared it was "famous!"