My Big Depressing Indian Wedding

Hello! It's been a while since my last post, so here goes! Recently, the four of us had the good fortune to get invited to our first Indian wedding. Pintu, one of the men who works at the Blessed Andre School, excitedly informed us of his youngest sister's impending marriage only two days before the occasion. We later found out that the entire wedding was planned in under one week! (I can't even imagine trying to do that!) Marriages in India and predominantly arranged. It was explained to us that there are "some" love marriages, but the vast majority are set up by professional marriage brokers or match makers. The process is quite interesting, but parts of it can make you cringe, especially if you're from a liberal Western tradition.

Girls get married around the age of 18 and boys are usually closer to 21 or 22, which must be why so many people ask me if I am married when they first meet me! Many times the bride and bridegroom have met only once or twice before the night of the wedding. The wedding also marks the first time that the bride will move away from her family's home. All of these factors make the process less than joyous for the bride. Contrast this with your typical wedding in the United States. Here is a picture of the four of us with Fr. Joe Paul and the bride to be. Pay attention to her age and her expression. It was tough for all of us to wish her congratulations and smile at her when she looked so down, but we did our bests. I think we were all a little saddened by that portion of our night.

One of the most striking aspects of the wedding was the "building" in which it took place. It was, in fact, an elaborate series of colorful fabric tents that were built up between several houses in a rural village. Fr. Joe Paul told us that once the tents were taken down, you would not recognize the village from the night before.

The rest of the wedding was also very interesting. There was a lot of dancing and chanting as well as an abundance of delicious food. I tried many new dishes that night including fish head curry, goat, cheese curd, and several spicy chicken dishes along with a yellow soup called dahl. Our next course was called sweet and sour, which was actually a lumpy brown liquid that tasted like a mixture of licorice and peanut butter. I know that sounds disgusting, but it wasn't all that bad! The meal finished, in traditional Bengali fashion, just as it had began, with a sweet. Yummy!

On the ride to and from the wedding, which was in a town called Simna, we had to cross the border into the country of Bangladesh. I was very excited about this because I can now say that I have been there, but all of us agreed that we would like to return to see more of our neighboring state.

In other news, I have begun teaching full time at the Blessed Andre School! I enjoy it there very much and I have found the children to be wonderful. They are quite shy at first and their self-confidence needs work, but they are bright. I have quite the age range throughout a typical week at school. Some days I teach 12th grade followed by 3rd or 4th grade. It's difficult to make that transition at times, but am really loving teaching. I couldn't believe what I was saying when I told Katherine that I could ALMOST see myself doing something like that in the future. I guess the family teaching gene hasn't totally skipped me!

Until next time,

Ben