Here Comes the Wedding

To provide some variety, we are writing this post together.

For the first time in two weeks, Jim and I actually do not have a job to do. This is because everyone is practicing dances for the wedding due to take place this Saturday. All the members of the community are running frantically around trying to make the grounds look more beautiful and beginning to prepare the food for the feast. Both Jim and I are psyched about the feast because so far, we know there will be nine lambs, not to mention various desserts, appetizers, and who knows what else. Jim and I have moved lots of dirt because heaps of dirt don't look good in photographs. Today while driving the two-wheeled tractor Jim lost control changing gears and drove it into the hedge. I jumped off the trailer and proceeded to try not to laugh. It did not help that there was a weird neighbor (who was sneaking up to scare us) talking in Spanish very quickly. He had seen the maneuverer and was probably trying to tell us how to drive. In the end we probably scared him more than he scared us.

Fortunately in the midst of all these misadventures, we get lots of snacks. Most of the men start working around 8:30 and continue until past midnight. Even 12-year-old-Issachar (jokingly referred to by the other children as "Is A Car") was up putting up lights until 2:20am last night! Needless to say we don't stay up quite that late helping out, but when the night shift starts after dinner, we usually help out until at least a few snacks have been served. On one memorable occasion, Inhemia (that might be how you spell his name, which means "Comfort of God" in Hebrew) was explaining what I was going to do in Spanish when the snack arrived. He abruptly switched to English (which he only shouts) and said "now drink mate and eat cookies!"

Yesterday we made a 5 benches out of new wood and old metal from defunct park benches. I'm not going to lie--they turned out pretty well. As we put the finished benches outside the workshop, all sorts of people would stop to try them out and say "Que lindo!" (which means "how beautiful") and thank us profusely. The traffic became so noticeable that one of our 12-year-old sidekicks suggested we start charging admission!

The custom at the Twelve Tribes is to not allow the bride and groom to see each other for week before their wedding. The guy with whom we share our house, who is the groom, had someone take the screen off his window because the house door can be seen from the bride's window. Jim even macheted a path through the hedge (not the one he drove into) for the groom. Now he will come flying through the window and land with a loud thud on the floor anytime, regardless of whether or not it is pitch black.

We have heard of several other wedding customs that sound very interesting. Before we write about them, however, we are waiting to see them so that we don't judge to quickly.