Wedding!

Ready for the big event!

We had the great privilege of attending our house-helper, Fely's, oldest son's wedding yesterday.

Fely walking Juan Carlos down the aisle.

 It was pretty traditional, but because they are a Christian family, it lacked the obnoxious component of everyone getting trashed.  Fely asked us to be padrinos de los anillos, which means we foot the bill for the couples' wedding rings and felt honored to be asked something of such importance to them.  We're not sure what else that implies, but suspect we might find as time goes on that there are other responsibilities that accompany this honor.  In a high-context society such as this one, a lot of information is assumed understood or can be received by a third party.  We found out later that it is tradition for padrinos to be a part of the picture taking process (which occupies a couple hours after the ceremony while the guests wait patiently in the reception hall), but we had no idea so we disappeared right after the ceremony.  Oops!  Thankfully, we were able to attend the wedding with some good friends who work with Fely's husband and so we drove up together late morning for the celebration.

The church.

Waiting for the ceremony to start.

 After a quick ceremony in a small church in El Alto, we drove (because it was hailing) nearby to a reception hall, complete with posters of naked women in the entryway.  The hall was large and airy, lending itself to drafts and freezing my feet from the moment we walked in until we left, 5 hours later. People were already seated at the metal tables set up and so we sat down as well and began the long wait for the happy couple to return from their picture taking.  Usually couples will drive around to popular spots around town to take pictures, sometimes during a span of upwards of 3 hours or so, while the guests are served hors d'oeuvres (in this case, animal crackers, cheese puffs, lollipops and copious amounts of soda ) until they return.  We played a few rounds of cards while we waited and then got in line for the gift presenting after man and wife arrived.  Then, they were covered with confetti from wedding-style pinatas hanging from the ceiling, did a few laps around the hall with tables clapping as they passed and then they sat down and stared straight ahead like they were waiting for the judge's decision.

Getting confettied.

At one point, Fely and her husband came to me and Scotty and asked us to sit with them at the front because they were busy getting food ready.  I realized that this was an honor associated with us being padrinos and we obligingly sat down, boys on one side, girls on the other.

Sitting with Juan Carlos and Nancy.

I made small talk with the bride, whom I have never met, and her mom for about 45 mins or so.  It was a bit uncomfortable at times, being in center stage but not knowing what proper etiquette was.  I did my best to make friends with the nervous, young bride and asked her questions about how she and Juan Carlos had met and how they had become engaged.  We talked about her family, including 9 other brothers and sisters, and empathized with her mom who just lost her husband of 30 years a few months ago.  Finally, the couple got up together and left the building, so I took advantage of doing the same to find the sun that was finally coming out from behind the clouds and warm my chilled body.  After 10 minutes in the sun, I felt much better and figured since I saw a taxi dropping off large buckets of potatoes and wash basins full of lettuce, it must be close to lunch time (at 5pm).  We went back inside and before long, more wash basins began to emerge full of small, disposable containers of food.  We checked with Fely to see where we were supposed to be seated- it was looking cramped at the bride and grooms table.  We got the go-ahead to sit where we had started off and received our food with prayers for God's protection.  Normally, I am not concerned about food that I eat here, but this was pork, and pork can do nasty things to you.  A good Bolivian friend of ours had made a comment one time that he almost always gets sick eating pork, but it's always worth it.  I can't say as though I feel the same way.  But, we knew the right thing was to eat it and it actually tasted pretty yummy.

Lechon- pork.

 So, we enjoyed using fingers to pull of salty pig goodness, tear up potatoes, fried bananas, yams and salad.

Wash it down with some more soda and then we were off.  My parents had graciously spent the whole day watching the girls, who were both fighting colds, and we managed to make it home just in time for me to nurse Jubilee and put her to bed.  We never got to taste the cake, but that probably wasn't going to get cut until around 8pm.

11 cakes!

 All in all, it was a great experience and another way we wanted to tell Fely and her family how much they mean to us.