Four days ago, on October 16th, was the wedding that Matt and I were invited to by one of the 5th grade boys who lives in the neighborhood.  We got dressed in our best clothes that day and donned our topis, which are traditional Nepali hats, typically formal wear.  We walked up the road to Raju's house a little before noon and arrived to find that most of the procession, including Raju, was at the temple, presumably at the wedding ceremony.  Seeing as we arrived a few minutes earlier than Raju told us to I believe we were not actually invited to the wedding ceremony, which is unfortunate.  I would have loved to see how they do it here.  It could have just been a communication barrier but I didn't see any way to right it.  We asked Raju several times what time we should be there and he repeated several times that we should be there by two elve o'clock (a common mispronunciation).

Anyway, we hung out for about an hour with some of the kids and a few adults who seemed entertained by our cameras and the fact that we were the only ones wearing topis.  I'm not sure most of them had any idea why we were there but you get used to the awkwardness that comes with certain pieces of information being lost in translation.  Most of the adults stood around a large pot over an open flame, cooking for lunch and dinner while we sat entertaining the kids and keeping them away from the gift we brought for the bride and groom.  Around 1 o'clock everyone began returning from the temple.  We stood in the small alleyway along the side of their home as everyone funneled into the backyard where the festivities were being held.  One of the women stood at the entrance putting tika on everyone's forheads as they entered.  The bride and groom were first of course, and were then carried down the alleyway on two of the mens's backs.  Then everyone else followed on foot, one at a time.

We were seated in a big and colorful tent set up in the backyard and among the first to be served.  It was very similar to the lunches that we get at school, though in my opinion not quite as good.  But it certainly wasn't bad either.  It was mostly rice and beans, some vegetables and and a cup of some very watered down and sugar free yogurt mixed with diced red apple.  Not my favorite but I figured it was much safer than the water; and again, not bad.  The meal did not last long but the company was good.  We sat with Raju and several of his friends.  We tried, rather unsuccessfully, to talk with some of the giggling young women before it was time to go congratulate the newly married young couple.

We managed to see just one or two other people approach the couple before we were whisked to the front of the line.  I think they were eager for some more awkward entertainment.  They wanted to see how much the Americans could embarrass themselves in one day.  I was holding their gift but had no idea what to do with it.  I hadn't seen anyone else present them with anything, even though we were told to bring a gift.  I walked up the two steps of the front porch, as it were, that they were seated on and tried my best to plaster more tika to their already covered foreheads as the man before me had done.  I'm not sure any of it stuck, most seemed to fall right back to wear I picked it up from.  I had never even officially met them before so I'm sure they were just as confused as I was.  I then very awkwardly handed them the "wall watch" that we had wrapped in town.  That was clearly the wrong thing to do as they gave me a bewildered look but it didn't seem to amount to much.  We did not know what to write on the card so at the last minute we decided on "May your marriage be fruitful and may the force be with you, From Matt and Ian."  The clock that we gave them was pretty nice and was suggested to us by a trustworthy source.

Then it was time to hang around and fraternize some more so we did just that for quite a while.  We were told before the wedding that there would be dancing but until this point there was only music blaring from some sizable speakers.  Around 6 o'clock the power went out, as it often does in the area at this time.  Much of the crowd at this point began loading on to a bus to leave so Matt and I decided it would be a good time to go home as well.  It didn't seem as if there was going to be any dancing and we were exhausted anyway.  Back home however, as we were going to sleep, we could hear the party starting back up.  The music got quite loud from up the road and we were probably missing the dancing.  At that point it just wasn't going to happen for us so we resigned to our beds, still satisfied with our experience on the whole.

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