Sunday, December 16, 2007

Did I mention I was going to a wedding?

Barbara (new roommate) and I went to the wedding of Yauwanan and Ashanti on Saturday. Yauwana is the brother of Nirmalan, who I have mentioned before (I had Thanksgiving with him and his wife and some other friends). The wedding was really beautiful. I do wonder if I'll ever get to see a Sinhalese wedding since this one was also Tamil (as were the two I went to on Wedding Wednesday). I really like Tamil weddings because the food afterwards is all vegetarian. It was excellent, by the way.

If you want to learn about the Hindu wedding ceremony, I've put explanations under my photos in Flickr. They are backwards, so you have to start on page four of my pictures. All of the information is from the wedding program that kindly provided details on what was happening during the ceremony. I didn't take photos of everything (I realize that is hard to believe), so parts are missing.

Barbara has now left for Islander Centre. She was supposed to leave tomorrow, but Sewalanka just decided she could go earlier. She still has things she needs to do here and they act like none of this matters -- I mean, who needs money and a visa? I feel bad for her. I think I'm isolated in Boralesgamuwa, but she'll be living at Islander Centre quite literally in the middle of nowhere, with no English speakers. This wouldn't be so bad if Sewalanka staff actually took an interest in the foreign staff, but they don't. So I fear she is going to feel very lonely.

Aya made us 'layer' sushi yesterday for my birthday and to welcome Barbara. It was really good and very thoughtful. She also bought me a birthday gift! I absolutely wasn't expecting that. Today Aya and I went to Gallery Cafe -- a new place for me -- and had lunch. It was very nice. I'm providing all these seemingly boring details to show that Aya has finally stopped working all the time. Apparently, she has finished a major part of her project and can now have a bit of fun. Maybe Aya, Barbara and I can do a bit of traveling and see more of the country.

It is funny Sewalanka felt they had to send Barbara to the field so quickly and they have been threatening to send Aya for a couple of months -- they could care less when I go to the field. And I want to go. I beg to be taken out to see stuff. I haven't even been to Islander Centre. When I first got here I was told I'd spend a lot of time at Sinharaja -- I've been once. I was going to hitch a ride with Barbara to Islander Centre, but someone from there came down to get her, which means I'd be stranded if I went. Since I'm flying home at the end of this week, that would be a bad idea.

I have to admit, it was a lot of fun having someone to talk to for a few days. Course, I'm pretty happy these days as I'm going home so soon! I'm actually excited.

2 comments:

Meghan said...

Hey, i love these photos. Would you mind if I used them for a painting?? The bride looks like fun to paint!

ps -- can't wait to see you!!!

Matt said...

Hello!

I am contacting you because I am working with the authors of a book about blogs, and I'd like to request permission to use a photograph of yours in this book. Please contact me at matt@wefeelfine.org, and I'd be happy to give you more information about the project. Please paste a link to your blog in the subject field. Your assistance is greatly appreciated.

Sincerely,

Matt
matt@wefeelfine.org