I am here. Reached as planned, on a 10h flight from Hongkong. Family, sisters, finally.
The lights are lit outside, sparkling, making the garden look festive.
We have been preparing for the wedding by making everything and ourselves eveeryy more beautiful (ha, I know what you´re thinking, but even I am not a lost cause:)) Yesterday, eyebrows, and nails. And we tried on all the beautiful clothes, had last minute changes made. I will show you pictures.
People have come, dressed up, but not too glamorous yet. They are wearing their smiles, their faces are lit. The air is full of expectation.
When I enter the door to the large living room, I immediately notice the two women sitting on the floor to the right, in front of the sofa. They have serious faces, they are professionals. In their hands they hold the "guns". There is a smell of mehndi (henna) in the room, a mixture of black tea and roses, as I would describe it. With that they fraw intricate patterns onto the hands, forearms, feet.
The bride has been sitting in front of one of the women for about an hour and it looks like she will be there for longer.Her decoration is the most elaborate, intricate, complicated.
But not only the bride is being painted on. All women, old and young will be "marked" this way as wedding part of the festivities.
The celebration, lasting for days, is about to begin.
In the middle of the room there is a lot of space, and music boxes, blasting the latest western and eastern songs, to which different groups rehearse their dances. Friends, classmates, family, guys, girls, mixed...there will be more than 12 different dances, and all of them were choreographed and studied.And even though the actual event is drawing very close, rehearsing and choreographing is still going on until late at night.
I came and learned, but only one of the dances.
This morning, we had helped the bride (yes, its my cousin) pack her suitcases, she will be moving out. She is truly packing all her stuff.
Tomorrow, the groom will come, and the "nikka" will take place. The official, legal part of the marriage. Preparations are going on right now.
