Weddings

Some exciting events took place in the tiny village of Pasir Panjang last week, TWO weddings. One was a lavish affair of the daughter of a couple people who work here. The front of the house, which is across the street from mine, was transformed with tables and colorful tents. There were people coming and going, and eating, all day at the house. I was awoken very early (like 6am) by the Muslim morning prayers that were blasting from speakers. All the volunteers and I went over to the wedding celebration for dinner. We walked through the tunnel of brightly colored tapestries forming a little hallway, enjoying the large buffet of good food. We sat and ate and then went up to the stage area to congratulate the newlyweds and their parents, who were all lavishly dressed. It seemed like a tiresome ritual for them to be honest. They have to sit up there all night just shaking hands and saying thank you etc. The whole village and then some showed up. There was a stage with live music, dancing, and even some karaoke. One guy got up there to sing a delightful (re: terrible) rendition of Adele’s Someone Like You. It was definitely a good idea that the gang and I had some pre-wedding beers.

The second wedding was actually at my house. My homestay mother was marrying for the second time (her first husband passed away a year or so ago). This was a much less fancy wedding. The ceremony (I heard) was simple in the morning. Our house was only transformed a bit; all the furniture was moved out and the place was spotless. I spent the previous night at the other volunteers’ house because there were so many people going though my house. Lots of relatives and people cooking, etc. It was a bit overwhelming and quite noisy. The funniest thing was that I wasn’t 100% sure who the new husband was! She had a few suitors during my stay here so I wasn’t sure which was the lucky guy. But I soon found out that night. He’s a nice guy actually. The other volunteers and I went to my house just for dinner, where we sat on a nice rug on the floor and ate with some of the family, a low-key affair. The newlyweds looked very happy indeed. I’m glad that all the festivities are over though, it was getting quite hectic and noisy in the village for a while there.