Last weekend I decided to stay in Madinat Zayed (the town
that I am actually living/teaching in) and try to relax, get some work done,
and most importantly save money. But, after a long week of work me and some of
the girls decided to go get pedicures at a small salon in town. It was there
that we met a lovely woman named Shamsa who invited us to her wedding the next
day. At first we thought “this is crazy who would go to a wedding where they
barely know the girl” as well as “we have nothing to wear!” Yet, one of the
ladies who had been to Emirate wedding before convinced us to go. She brought
us all to her house where we had what seemed like a fashion show with all of
her dresses. And after assuring us that we could wear cocktail dresses and show
our shoulders and knees we were ready to go for the next day.
When we showed up to the wedding we were in for a shock. The
bride’s family is known to be the more relaxed laid back family in the UAE.
But, she was marrying into a very conservative family. But, I am getting ahead
of myself. Let me give you a little background on what an Emirate usually looks
like:
1: The men and women have two separate parties not even near
each other.
2: The women eat, drink tea/coffee, dance, and don’t wear
their traditional abayas.
3: The dress for women is ball gown/prom dress status. Since
there are no men if you got it flaunt it.
4: The bride sits on her “throne” and doesn’t speak, eat, or
dance.
Now when we walked in we saw half of the women in their Abaya’saa
and the full covering Sheila’s that cover everything but their eyes. The other
half were wearing the sexy, revealing, ball gowns. It was very easy to separate
the grooms female family members to the brides. After what seemed like an eternity
of very loud Arabic music and lots of food! The bride finally entered with a
few of her brothers. All the women covered up again. And they escorted her to
her “throne.” After they left the dancing, music, and pictures picked up again.
There was an older lady at our table who had about 8 plastic
grocery bags that she was filling with the food platters that they served our
table! It was so gross because she was getting food everywhere. It just shows
though the generational gap. When this woman was growing up they all lived in
tents and lived of very little food. So, she still hoards food.
After watching all the dancing and the food hoarding at our
table we all covered up again and the groom and “groomsmen” came in. They took
pictures with the bride. Threw money to the crowd. Then the groom took Shamsa
home. The poor guy looked so nervous and uncertain it was cute. Everyone else stayed
to dance (women only) but we left after Shamsa did.
I am really glad that I took advantage of that wonderful
opportunity that was dropped into my lap. It is good to say no sometimes, but
when in a new place with new people what reason could you ever have for saying
no to a new cultural experience?
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