the wedding was a blast

The wedding of one of the 4th year Pharmacy students, at the Medical college, was a blast. The entire class was there - and I now know about a dozen 22 year old girls who are preparing to be pharmacists. The entire village - a small part of the region of Hissar - about 20 minutes by car from Dushanbe, was looking on to the wedding and standing behind the guests. As usual in villages, the 60 people actually invited had seats and food and were allowed to dance. The other 300-400 people were watching from behind the tables, and getting closer and closer to the food. It was a little like a horror film...Gissar may be known for thievery though... As you may remember, Christine had about 250 dollars stolen from her bag, and yesterday, the Tajik girls sitting with us were paranoid to no end that the children creeping closer and closer to our chairs would take anything they could touch. When we went to dance, one woman was left at the table with 15 purses piled in front of her - the purses even placed directly on food so that nobody would touch them. The dancing was wonderful - although my arabic dancing has somewhat changed my Tajik style, and I am less comfortable with the Tajik arm movements. There was also an official dancer at the wedding, who was handed bills by people - to pay her and so that she would continue. The bride and groom as always sat up at the front and didn't smile once, and they would only stand if someone came directly up to greet them. They certainly didn't dance together, I never saw them eat, and only once or twice did they talk with their best friends/witnesses (I haven't figured out what) who sat next to them on the platform. The classmates, who really seemed to be the most important guests, bought together for them a tv and dvd player. It seemed to be a very nice gift. Before the wedding, we were treated to some food at the home - but we ate in the dark - well, in the dusk - as it was just turning 5:30 or so, and the daylight was diminishing. Apparently, Gissar's businesses consume all the electricity available, and so only for a few hours at night, is there electricity in the residential areas. We ate some snacks at the home, went outside when it started to get really dark inside, and by 6:20 were we seated in the outdoor area for the wedding, where there was a paid announcer and a band. The announcer would cut off the music every half hour or so to make good wishes to the bride and groom, and other close people to the newlyweds would go to the mic and speak. I was asked to speak, but I am seriously shy about such things...and so, I regretfully didn't go to the mic. We took a paid cab back, with two of the girls from the pharmacy college, at about 8, and then headed off to La Salsa for some Mexican bean burritos with Galya. There was a near riot inside La Salsa because the French military contingent was having some kind of party, and they were very drunk and very loud. Well, today is a beautiful Fall sunday in Dushanbe, and I look forward to going to the Park, and telling my old host family that I actually have to move in with them tomorrow because my landlady's family fromUzbekistan is coming tomorrow and they don't really have space for me. Perhaps I should get my own apartment again -?