Negotiating the Bride...and Midnight Disco

So on the eve of Eid, my family (including me) caravaned out to a nearby village (2 hours!). We went to celebrate what they said was a wedding, but was actually the negotiations for the bride!

First came the "unveiling." The bride, supported by her friends bowed continual as music was interspersed with the calling of relatives names. The appropriate relatives (his and hers) came forward to give money. The more money, the higher the veil until all the names had been said and her face was exposed.

Then we all headed inside to dine (more Bisbarmak, the 3rd time that day!) and LOADS of people and food. Every room was packed. :)

We finished, cleaned, and I was thankful to see it was before 10pm. Maybe I would be in bed by midnight after all! I had work the next day! Yea...no such luck. We sat around waiting and waiting. I finally asked and was told we were waiting for some of our relatives. Oh. They came, they ate, we sat some more. I asked again and was told we were waiting for her relatives.

Then came the realization that I was going to be there a very VERY long time. An hour later my Mom came over to say that this was a real "Kazakh drama" I was getting to see. Her family had been locked in with the bride-to-be for a long time and was NOT happy. And hour later they came out...and guess what... yes, we ATE AGAIN! Remember this is following the 4 meals I had at various houses for Aid and the meal I had already eaten there!

An hour into the meal and toasts, more serious negotiations began. I was stuck with the eldest siblings and so sat respectfully and tried not to yawn. FINALLY my Mom had mercy and...sent me out to the disco! I couldn't believe it! Oy vy! Again, realizing that I was not leaving any time soon, I figured I should make the best of it...and I danced my socks off to the utter shock and delight of all my Kazakh relatives and the townspeople! My older cousins helped me ward of the jigits (young men) who drank to much and we had a GREAT time!

At about 1:30 am or so I finally was DONE! I couldn't dance or hop or even hum another song. I went in to find out how close negotiations were (no where near done) and was directed to the "sleeping room." SLEEPING ROOM! How come no one told me about that 3 hours earlier!!! In any case, I literally fell onto a pile of pillows on the floor at which point my host Mom decided she should get me home... if only I had known that a performance of exhaustion was the ticket home, I would have done it a lot earlier! Anyway, I tucked into bed somewhere near 4:00 am, and surprisingly was no worse the wear the next day...with a great story to share!