Yesterday we went to Jiries' sister's house (Hannan) for a family lunch. She made spicy chicken with french fries on top as well as cousa mashy (MY FAVORITE!) and stuffed grape leaves. Hanging out with Jiries' family is always so fun because everyone is extremely nice and the food is unbelievable.
Nermeen and Maureen:
Jiries' sister's daughter's son. I can't remember what his name is but I know his mom is Nawal, which is also Shorok's moms name:
Setting up lunch:
Maureen and Hannan chatting:
Little girl (her first name is actually Joan D'Arc- they pronounce it like "john dark" here) planning something sneaky
Typical body language around here:
I ate so much at Hannan's house I felt sick. We took off early so we could go home and get ready to head to Hebron for the Bedouin wedding. I made sure my camera was completely charged and I put on a nice but relatively conservative (JCrew!) dress. Jiries and his mom both okay'd it before I left, I wanted to be sure I wasn't going to offend anyone. I was pretty surprised by what I saw once the wedding really picked up.
It was about a 45 minute-1 hour drive for us, and the roads were windy and bumpy but the scenery of the Palestinian countryside was beautiful. Unfortunately the landscape was littered with massive settlements all over the place that were guarded at their front entrance by a large main gate, soldiers, watchtowers, and barbed wire. They were depressing to look at and I am sick of each of my photo albums being ruined by pictures of settlements so I am not posting any today. After getting sort of lost, we arrived at a house in a Bedouin village, not in Be'er Sheva, but about 30 minutes away in another town where half of Amal's village lives now. Right away I was ushered onto a huge coach bus filled with women and children, and both Jiries and Jiries went with the men (Maureen was busy with other plans that afternoon so she didn't come). I had no idea where the bus was going, the only person I knew was Amal, and she wasn't even on the bus! It was a great opportunity to make friends though, which wasn't hard because instantly there were about 10 kids hanging off of my arms and sitting on/all around me.
The groom was a guy from Amal's Bedouin village in Be'er Sheva and the bride was a 19 year old woman from Hebron, so it was was a mixture of more traditional women of African descent from Amal's village and lighter skinned women from Hebron.
The bus took off right away and soon enough someone was playing the drums and women and children were in the isle dancing. All the older women wore headscarves with long sleeves and pants, most with a long tunic or trenchcoat over their pants. They were all crowded around me talking to me at a million miles per hour and occasionally tossing a baby my way or yanking me up to dance with them (mostly the children). 
I held about 10 babies named Muhammad. All the contents of my purse were constantly in danger- especially my journal- because every time they caught sight of it the little girls would claw it apart out of curiosity. They were fascinated with everything I said and did, and any kind of facial expression or gesture I made they would all copy and start doing to each other. It was pretty funny and most of them were really cute, so it was a lot of fun.
After about half an hour, the bus finally arrived at the bride's house, which I somehow figured out from the little kids. All the men, including Jiries and Jiries, were standing outside. We walked through throngs of women to get to the front door, which opened up into a large room. It was totally packed with women covered from head to toe except for their faces, and when I walked in everyone shifted their attention from the bride and stared at me. I was really embarrassed and felt awful for stealing the bride's thunder, but she seemed intrigued by my presence and beckoned me over. It was an interesting experience, I felt like I had been chosen by the queen. The bride sat at one end of the room on a giant couch with a fancy design and her wedding dress was enormous. It was low cut on the top with no straps, almost completely covered in sparkling sequins and tight fighting until it reach the waist there it blossomed out in huge waves of white fabric. The bottom of her dress spilled over both sides of the couch, and there were women fawning over her on both sides. Her face was powdered completely stark white (her skin was pretty fair to begin with, but I mean like porcelin doll white face), and she had heavy purple and blue eyeshadow on with hot pinkish purple sparkling lipstick. She was quite a sight to behold. She said marhaba, keefeck? (hi, how are you), studied my face for a good 30 seconds, then moved on to the next person.
After that the bus went back to the village, and the whole ride the kids tortured me by making me dance in front of everyone in the isle. It made them laugh so I went along with it, even though I can't dance Arabic-style for the life of me. We got back to the house where the main party was, and the women went upstairs to the roof and the men stayed outside. On the roof there was a tent set up, and hundreds of women sat in seats in a horseshoe shape around a small stage. Behind the stage was a massive couch similar to the one the bride was on before, this time placed on a pedestal with a few steps leading up to it. For the rest of the night the bride and groom sat on that couch and watched women dance in fron of them on the stage, and sometimes they got down and danced in front of everyone, and at one point they exchanged rings. The groom was the only man who saw the women uncovered, and he was the only man who saw the bride at all. Most of the women removed their headscarves and took off their trenchcoats. What they wore underneath was mind boggling; they had the tallest and most elaborate high heeled shoes, tiny dresses with no straps and sparkles everywhere. Their hair was in massive updos with millions of bobbypins, buckets of hairspray, and even more glitter. It was an unbelievable transformation. They danced 4 or 5 at a time in front of the bride and sometimes with the bride.
So why haven't I included any pictures yet? Wellll... it's because I can't. I was strictly instructed not to, because the women had their headscarves off. The bride especially did not want her picture taken. This was all really devestating for me, because of this blog of course. I tried to sneak a few pictures but the kids around me gasped every time they saw me reaching subtly for my camera. They had me get up and dance multiple times, and of course there was no alcohol because it was a Muslim wedding. The bride and groom each walked in circles and read verses from the Koran. It was like a sweat lodge in the tent, hundreds of women, most of them wearing tons of clothing, all squished into a small area. The power went out twice, and there was a small panic each time, and I was unsure of how I was going to get myself out of the situation in the event the power did not return, but eventually it did both times. The bride changed out of her dress at one point, and when she went from the tent on the roof down into the house she put on a silver silk trenchcoat with a huge pointed hood. She returned in a tight, small blue metallic dress with a corset-style front and tall, tall heels. From the edge of the roof some of the women (covered, of course) watched the men outside below do the Dubka (traditional Palestinian dance). Fortunately Jiries and Jiries got a few pictures of the men dancing.
It was quite an adventure, and I had a great time, but when the end of the night came I was ready to leave. It was a little overwhelming having kids constantly hang all over me and the women there staring at me almost more than they were looking at the bride. I made a lot of friends though, practiced my Arabic a ton (it was so weeak- but people talk so fast!), and I made a LOT of friends.
I was even invited to more weddings, but unfortunately I won't be here when they are happening. I saw Amal! She was really busy the whole time, and she wasn't on the bus with us, so I only got a chance to speak with her for a couple minutes and it was to plan another get together for us. She is doing really well though, and she is glad I am here. Everyone at the wedding seemed really happy that I was there, and somehow I didn't feel as out of place as you might expect (once everyone stopped staring at least).Today we had a huge fish lunch that Jiries made, then in the afternoon we went to an engagement party. When a couple gets engaged here, the party is almost as big as the actual wedding. Then we had a big family bbq here with music and some dancing just for fun. I have to get up in 5 hours to go to Tata Huda's senior citizen's home with her so I will post pictures tomorrow. Also tomorrow- in the afternoon I am teaching Portugese nuns English! Hah, who would have guessed. Tisba alkher (good night)!
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