They are everywhere and no matter what I do I can't seem to get away. I'm so glad I stopped by student health to pick up some prophylaxis before I left because I've needed it more than ever on this trip. I'm talking about malaria prophylaxis,of course. I am loving my malerone right now because these mosquitoes are loving me! There are swarms of them surrounding me, especially in the evenings. Mornings aren't as bad but I still have to run around in the shower trying to escape them as I bathe. This morning was so bad that I had to take the electric mosquito killer to the toilet with me to keep from getting attacked as I did my business. The worst however was at the wedding last night. My arms and ankles are covered in bites. Thankfully the multiple layers of my saree kept the rests of the legs mostly safe.
The wedding itself was lots of fun. We actually woke up at 4am to get ready for the morning blessing ceremony at the bride's house. I put on my new dress and leggings (which is just funky enough to probably look normal in Carrboro, NC) and headed out to watch all the older women in the community pour all sorts of stuff over the bride as a blessing. It was very interesting to watch and as the only white person there I attracted a lot of attention and ended up being in a lot of family photos. I have lots of photos but no way to upload them right now so it will have to wait until I get back to the hospital tomorrow to put them on my laptop.
Donning my new saree for the wedding wasn't very hard work at all. I basically just stood there and let one of the women put it all in place for me! It's kind of confusing and took a lot of safety pins to keep it in place without me having to do too much work. The wedding itself didn't start until around 8pm that night...and lasted until almost 1am. There were a lot of rituals that I didn't understand but it was still interesting to watch. Sadly my camera battery died as soon as we got there so I'm having to rely on Charita to pass along all the photos I made her take.
It was crazy all the bling that these women wear. I wore more bling than I ever had in my life and I was outdone by even most of the kids! I heard that the bride spent $40,000 just on jewelry for the wedding. She wore a belt made out of gold worth around $10,000. It was CRAZY and beautiful. I definitely have a little bling fever right now. The variety of sarees was amazing. I didn't see any two alike and all were gorgeous in their own way. I definitely hope that I get invited to more Indian weddings so that I have more opportunities to wear my new saree!
The wedding itself was lots of fun. We actually woke up at 4am to get ready for the morning blessing ceremony at the bride's house. I put on my new dress and leggings (which is just funky enough to probably look normal in Carrboro, NC) and headed out to watch all the older women in the community pour all sorts of stuff over the bride as a blessing. It was very interesting to watch and as the only white person there I attracted a lot of attention and ended up being in a lot of family photos. I have lots of photos but no way to upload them right now so it will have to wait until I get back to the hospital tomorrow to put them on my laptop.
Donning my new saree for the wedding wasn't very hard work at all. I basically just stood there and let one of the women put it all in place for me! It's kind of confusing and took a lot of safety pins to keep it in place without me having to do too much work. The wedding itself didn't start until around 8pm that night...and lasted until almost 1am. There were a lot of rituals that I didn't understand but it was still interesting to watch. Sadly my camera battery died as soon as we got there so I'm having to rely on Charita to pass along all the photos I made her take.
It was crazy all the bling that these women wear. I wore more bling than I ever had in my life and I was outdone by even most of the kids! I heard that the bride spent $40,000 just on jewelry for the wedding. She wore a belt made out of gold worth around $10,000. It was CRAZY and beautiful. I definitely have a little bling fever right now. The variety of sarees was amazing. I didn't see any two alike and all were gorgeous in their own way. I definitely hope that I get invited to more Indian weddings so that I have more opportunities to wear my new saree!
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