A Sandi Day, From Afganistan ... A Womn's View!

Thought I'd share. Interesting place.

Just another Sandi day. You would think that I would learn by now.

I had a really nice day the other day. A few of the women from other
teams came over and we went sunbathing on the roof -- where none of the
neighbors could see us. Unfortunately word got out where we were and
the boys kept finding reasons to come up to the roof. Uhhhhh do you
guys need some cold water? Ok, I'll be back..... Then they'd have to
come back to ask me if I've seen the dog, where I'd left a file, if we
wanted any lunch.... you get the idea.

Today I went to an Afghan wedding. It was interesting. It is a
multiple day event and today's part lasted the entire day, so we only
got to see a small part of it. It was all women, about 250 of them and
small children. The bride changed three times. Todays event started at
9 but the bride doesn't appear until about noon. The women all hang
out, dance, and i don't know what else. I saw her in her purple
dress. But she also had a white one and a green one. She was 16, the
groom 20 and an engineer. When I asked someone if the bride was happy,
they responded, well... she's not Unhappy. I'll post some pictures when
i get a chance. I made two small faux paus. As I was coming in,
someone handed me an adorable little girl who had lost her mother. The
guy just gave her to me and walked away. So I entered the wedding hall
and started looking for the little girl's mom -- and walked right past
the bride and groom's parents in a receiving line! Later this older
woman came up to us with a pot of burning coals. I leaned in and waffed
the smoke towards me to smell it and said thank you. For whatever
reason I thought that was the tradition, to bring good luck. But then I
saw some women pointing to me, repeating the gesture and laughing.
Apparently you don't do that, and the smoke is to rid the evil eye away
from those who were dancing (since it's un-islamic). Then she said
that we should pay her some money, but we were the only ones who had to
pay. The the two female friends i was with went to dance and left their
purses. A teenage girl came over twice to where I was standing near a
window, with a little baby supposedly to get some air. But I realized
that my friend's purse was on the windowsill. I looked over and saw
that she had opened it. So i took it and was trying desperately to get
my friend's attention so she could check her purse while the girl was
still there. Finally I had to ask a small girl to go get her. By then
the teenage thief had left. Well someone the people around us figured
out what had happened, told the bride's family, who came over and
apologized to us and asked for a description of the teen and what she
was wearing. Then they proceeded to bring a slew of girls, none of whom
matched the description i gave them. If they found her they were going
to take her outside and beat her. So I decided we should leave before
there was a big incident.

Just another day....
Love you,
S