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Published: June 12th 2006
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The bride and groom
crowned and cloaked This newest wedding was quite an experience.
It was an Ethiopian Orthodox wedding, which I was pretty excited for, because if nothing else it sounds really different. The religion is sort of a combination of Christianity and Judaisim and since I have failed to do research on it yet...that's about all I know.
Just to enter the church all women had to have their heads covered and everyone had to take off their shoes and leave them outside. One of the cameramen, like us, didn't see this one coming and was horribly embarrassed that he had worn socks with holes in them. All women had to sit on one side of the church and men on the other...which was intimidating because I was scared to go to the other side of the church to take any picture. So instead all of my pictures are from one side of the church.
Both the bride and the groom sat together at an altar at the front of the church with their feet on pillows so they wouldn't touch the ground, since they were seen as king and queen for the day. The main part of the beginning of the ceremony
was the crowning and cloaking of the two of them that they then wore for the rest of the time. Ms Celestine was really shocked at how simple the bride's dress was...but I guess there wasn't much point in having an elaborate dress if it were just going to be covered up. Not to mention you would melt, I can't imagine how hot they were.
Besides all of those things, there wasn't anything that different about the wedding ceremony from any Christian ceremony. There was no bridal party, the bride's father and groom's mother sat up front as witnesses. There were various different prayers and readings, lots of sitting and standing and LOTS of incense. The combination of the heat and that made me fear that I was going to pull another completely dizzy episode in this church, but I luckily made it without embarrassing myself. The archbishop was there to perform the ceremony straight from Ethiopia. I have a feeling he has been in Trinidad for quite a long time, but it was still a big deal I guess. Although in general it was a very played down wedding. Probably less than 40 people and after the ceremony
The bride before the wedding
they kept her locked in a car...she let me, but i don't think i was supposed to be taking pictures of her. people were handed plates of snacks while standing by the parking lot. Although it was 11:40 and the soccer match was starting in 20 minutes so I suppose everyone involved had other priorities.
So in other news...you would have thought Trinidad won the entire world cup Saturday! In reality it was a draw between them and Sweeden, but they were expected to get clobbered so it was quite a victory. Not to mention a good portion of T&Ts team is in their upper 30s and by the end they were only playing with 9 men. The announcers kept saying how "unconventional" the team was...because I don't think they had any other idea what to say about them. So it was quite exciting for them to get their first world cup point ever, and the looks on Sweeden's face made most everything worth it. And hey, a draw is more than the US can say. So we'll have to see how they do Thursday against England...I think everyone is praying for another draw, because hoping for a win is a bit much.
I also went to a Hindu prayer service at a neighbors house Saturday. I have no real
idea what went on since most everything was in Hindi...I think it was to honor the deceased husband of the woman who lived there, but it was interesting none the less. Lots of drumming and singing and burning things in an altar. The flames smelled pretty bad, so I don't know what they were burning, I was just scared it was going to catch the woman's clothes on fire. They brought around a perfume that they sprayed on everyone's hands- I guess you were to smell this in lieu of the bad smell. I finally got my chance to eat off of a big banana leaf (rumors tell me they aren't banana leaves, but they look close enough like them) with my hand. The problem came when my hands were covered in various curried dishes but my nose was running down my face from all the spice. I think they were all entertained just by watching me. One of the dishes was called Mother-In-Law because it is so spicy you can only handle it in small amounts. Such a sense of humor. Afterwards I went out with the 33 year old neighbor. After a week and a half of reading
and going to bed at 9:30 every night, I was pretty bored and up for anything. I'll just say the club was named Screamers and let you come up with your own pictures from that. And I'm sure they will all end up to be pretty accurate. So in the course of one day I went to an Ethiopian Orthodox wedding, had Chinese food for lunch, Indian food and Hindu prayer service that evening and a club that played primarily soca music (with some classic early 90s American music) all in one day. That's Trinidad's diversity for you.
Yesterday they took me to a nearby beach for the afternoon. I was told that I'll never be satisfied with Trinidad beaches since I started with Tobago. But being in a Caribbean country but not having gone to the beach in almost 2 weeks was getting to me so I was up for giving it a try. Most of the beaches in Trinidad are really industrial, lots of oil refineries. So even though you can see the sea from San Fernando we had to drive about 45 minutes to get to a good one that's swimmable. It was pouring when we
got there, so no good laying on the beach, but it got sunny and I spent a couple of hours out there. It was definitely no Tobago, but there was sand and ocean so I had what I needed. Clerene was surprised that I have wolfed down every different kind of new food she put in front of me with no complaints, but I have now found things I definitely don't like. I'll eat most anything...but I can't take
Mauby- a juice made from tree bark that was served to me like a snow cone with condensed milk on top. It's quite the acquired taste...really bitter and not my idea of what to drink on a cold day.
Soursop juice- It's made from the milky pulp of some local fruit then blended with milk, and it tastes like this awful frothy mouth wash I had to use after oral surgery once.
As for food, there is this thing made with sliced green mangos mixed with salt and lots of pepper sauce, and a pastry made with corn meal with ground beef inside- it sounds incredibly harmless but there's something about it I can't figure out. So after 3 some weeks, I think they are almost relieved that they have found food I won't eat, but for the most part everything is really good.
I have no idea what this week has in store, but cheer for Trinidad Thursday against England!
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susan kroupa
non-member comment
Go Trinidad! Great game!
Yea Trinidad! They fared better than the USA! Need someone to cheer!