..isn't life just wonderful, full of surprises and events that you have never thought would happen to you, well today was yet again one of those days.. on Tuesday Susanna and i, got invited to go and see a wedding, actually a Muslim wedding, and of course we happily accepted it. So a long standing interest from Mike and Ralph has been to come and join us in the slum area - so what better opportunity could come then take them with us to this wedding - and so we did. So the four of us head of to a shop this morning after breakfast to buy flowers and then off to the office where we are to meet Silvi (one of our trainers, that has been on our trainings..). We arrive to the office, meet and greet and then off to the wedding..- and in the rickshaws we go, to take us into the slum to see a beautiful wedding ..
(you are officially invited to the wedding of Nisha and Saliba..)
you know you have been expected when there are family of the bride and groom waiting for you outside the site, and you have never met any of them before - so once again we are back into the superstar role, as we pull up in front of the site, we are welcomed by family and friends, escorted to the first floor, where the ceremony is to take place, we meet the groom on the way - he is looking all excited to see us (okay i might need to explain this, we got invited by his brother, so we dont even know the groom..) although we have never met him before, you can see that he is very happy we came, and when we break out our cameras he looks even more please (i have to admit that he looks very smart..) his father comes to meet us, we are fast introduced to his mother, that is take my hand thanking me for coming to her son wedding, for finding the time to come and be part of the celebration, and we are shown to our seats - and, we get the first row seats - not even family is sitting here ..- so we are seated and it takes us some 5 sec. before we have all the attention, and i am starting to get confused, did the people come to see us, or the wedding..
(Susanna was one of the main attractions with these girls ..)
i look at mike and Ralph that seem to be accepting the fact that today they are the superstars of the wedding, (i guess now they understand what i meant in my previous blog when i mentioned being centre of attention..), mike takes a lot of great photos, and the more he takes, the more children are coming up to be part of the photo-shot, and they are not letting him go without having had their pictures taken by him..and when he is done with the picture taking, it is now his turn to have his picture taken, the photographer is not in the centre.. After pictures and handshakes in high volumes we are finally having a bit of breathing-space and i am being told that the Muslim priest is late already 40 min. and still more and more people are entering the room, i think that by now we are somewhere around 2-300 people..
(..this is only one little part of the whole hall - it was packed with people..)
The priest enters, takes the stage (nonchalant after being late 50 min.), sits down, signs some papers, talk some words with the fathers of the bride and groom - collects some money, and then it all starts, he starts to sing out some prayers, speak some words, then some more prayers, some more words, and after 20 min it is over... kinda an anticlimax if you ask me..
(the guy with the white little hat is the priest that married the couple..)
The official part of the ceremony is over and it only took some 20 min, and then it becomes interesting, till now i still didnt see the bride, but now she is rushed to the stage to take a stand next to her new husband, and pictures are being taken, hugs are being given, gifts are being handed over, when you hand over your gift you get a photo with them ..
(..and here is the new happy couple .. what a dress-up .. )
As mentioned already, Susanna and i bought some flowers, and as Susanna hands over the flowers to the wife, we are all being asked to come to the stage, to a full photo shot with the bride and groom, we are being told to look in this direction, then that direction, we are almost hired models on work, we are the stand-ins that you can hire to make your wedding more interesting .. i am once again thinking about the fact that instead of showing the new wedded couple some interest, 4 foreigners are getting all the attention, and it makes me feel a bit strange...
(final hugs are being shared before it is lunch time..)
(you are officially invited to the wedding of Nisha and Saliba..)
you know you have been expected when there are family of the bride and groom waiting for you outside the site, and you have never met any of them before - so once again we are back into the superstar role, as we pull up in front of the site, we are welcomed by family and friends, escorted to the first floor, where the ceremony is to take place, we meet the groom on the way - he is looking all excited to see us (okay i might need to explain this, we got invited by his brother, so we dont even know the groom..) although we have never met him before, you can see that he is very happy we came, and when we break out our cameras he looks even more please (i have to admit that he looks very smart..) his father comes to meet us, we are fast introduced to his mother, that is take my hand thanking me for coming to her son wedding, for finding the time to come and be part of the celebration, and we are shown to our seats - and, we get the first row seats - not even family is sitting here ..- so we are seated and it takes us some 5 sec. before we have all the attention, and i am starting to get confused, did the people come to see us, or the wedding..
(Susanna was one of the main attractions with these girls ..)
i look at mike and Ralph that seem to be accepting the fact that today they are the superstars of the wedding, (i guess now they understand what i meant in my previous blog when i mentioned being centre of attention..), mike takes a lot of great photos, and the more he takes, the more children are coming up to be part of the photo-shot, and they are not letting him go without having had their pictures taken by him..and when he is done with the picture taking, it is now his turn to have his picture taken, the photographer is not in the centre.. After pictures and handshakes in high volumes we are finally having a bit of breathing-space and i am being told that the Muslim priest is late already 40 min. and still more and more people are entering the room, i think that by now we are somewhere around 2-300 people..
(..this is only one little part of the whole hall - it was packed with people..)
The priest enters, takes the stage (nonchalant after being late 50 min.), sits down, signs some papers, talk some words with the fathers of the bride and groom - collects some money, and then it all starts, he starts to sing out some prayers, speak some words, then some more prayers, some more words, and after 20 min it is over... kinda an anticlimax if you ask me..
(the guy with the white little hat is the priest that married the couple..)
The official part of the ceremony is over and it only took some 20 min, and then it becomes interesting, till now i still didnt see the bride, but now she is rushed to the stage to take a stand next to her new husband, and pictures are being taken, hugs are being given, gifts are being handed over, when you hand over your gift you get a photo with them ..
(..and here is the new happy couple .. what a dress-up .. )
As mentioned already, Susanna and i bought some flowers, and as Susanna hands over the flowers to the wife, we are all being asked to come to the stage, to a full photo shot with the bride and groom, we are being told to look in this direction, then that direction, we are almost hired models on work, we are the stand-ins that you can hire to make your wedding more interesting .. i am once again thinking about the fact that instead of showing the new wedded couple some interest, 4 foreigners are getting all the attention, and it makes me feel a bit strange...
(final hugs are being shared before it is lunch time..)
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