The Fairweather Family: February 2009

There was a wedding at the beginning of this month for the daughter of the family we rent our house from. It was quite the party! In one day they put up and entire tent made out of bamboo and tarps. They also cooked enough food for the entire baranguy! It was amazing!!! They butchered 1 cow and a bunch of pigs (I can't remember how many)!!! So at about 5:30 in the morning it sounded like people were cutting down trees. That lasted until about 10:00am but I didn't see any trees chopped down or wood that was being cut, so I asked what the noise was. Come to find out that the chopping noise was from the men butchering the meat!!! Can you believe that! They butchered meat for almost 5 hours and it sounded like they were chopping down trees! It was crazy!!! Well, besides that :) it was really great to get to watch all the people come together and prepare for the wedding feast right outside of our house! It was interesting because this is the first Filipino wedding I have been involved with. The couple that got married are Delson and Nelfa and they now live in the small house up the hill right behind our house. Not many people went to the actual ceremony in the church, like we do in the States. Every time that we pass by the church that Delson and Nelfa got married in Layla always points it out and talks about 2 people getting married. It is really cute, and I was so suprised that she recognizes the church and knows that's where they got married. It's amazing how much she knows and I don't think she could know that kind of stuff...anyways! Everyone, and I mean everyone attended the reception, from the poorest villagers to the foreigners who don't even know the couple. Here are some pictures of the wedding ceremony and the preparation for the feast. I didn't get a chance to get pictures of the reception, which I was really bummed about.