During wedding season in Laos, we are asked to attend quite a few weddings. Often we are invited if we know someone in the family, even if it's only a casual acquaintance. I'm not entirely sure if it's viewed as lucky to have a foreigner attend or if they hope that we'll give more money to the bride and groom (it is expected that every person asked to attend the reception will put some money in an envelope and place it in a large fancy box that is placed at the entrance of the hall), but we are invited to our fair share.
This last wedding was one that we had been looking forward to for months! Our landlord's brother was getting married. Since we spend quite a bit time with their family, we had heard so much about the wedding plans. Our landlord was the oldest sister, so much of the preparation plans fell on her. They had booked the reception in a large wedding hall that provided a fairly nice dinner and had room for some Lao traditional dancing.
When Kirk and I came back from the wedding, we processed it together and had to agree that it was the most fun we had had at a Lao wedding. We understood much of what was going on, we knew the order of events, and we had well over 15 Lao people that we could talk to and had a history with. After a year of language school, we do realize we have so much to learn about the Lao culture and the Lao language; but it's times like these where we can sit back and smile and feel grateful for what we have learned and who we have invested in.
I took the girls to get their hair done at a shop down our street. Kezi was so excited to have them curl hers! It seemed worth it for the 60 cents I paid!
The hairdressers love to do Kolaya's hair and they ooh and ahh the whole time!
"So soft and so yellow!"
Mikaya was pleased with her curls!
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