So I wanted to tell everyone about my second wedding experience.  Last friday, we went to a Nevan wedding.  This was a little different however, than the first.  We went to where we thought the wedding was going to be and there was no one there.  So we realized it was going to be in the village.  I'm thinking, no big deal, we just drive to it right?  So....incredibly....wrong!  We drive up to this river bank, and Sis. Long says we are going to have to take the canoe accross.....I said, no thanks, I'll stay here!  Well, they had a motor boat, so she talked me into it.  We get out and walk halfway to the river, and then says, your going to have to take your shoes off...it's to muddy...So I do....and promptly step knee high into black mud!  So here I am....Not just a white woman...but a chubby white woman.  About 15 village people standing on the banks watching me, and I'm sinking in the mud. Now, anyone who knows me, knows that I have a tendency to be a tiny bit dramatic....well...I was very dramatic on this day.  I stomped my way to the river, sinking knee deep just about every step...sucking in breath because it was cold......squealing because I'm thinking about the crabs, and worms, and bugs that I am possibly stepping on.  Gross right?  You have no idea!  I had to laugh while I was doing all the other things because we all know that it is better to have people laugh with you than at you.....and they WERE laughing.  So we finally get to the river, and I have to hike my "wedding attire" dress up to my knees, maintain balance, but not let my feet sink too deep, and hold onto my purse, and shoes, screaming the and wimpering the whole time, at the thought of what lay beneath the muddy river water.  I managed, with no dignity left, to get in to the metal motor boat.  Everytime the boat moved I would gasp for air...the natives were all smiling, or giggling, or downright laughing, by the time we got to the other side.....Little did I know that hell was just on the other side of a river!  That's right folks...it gets worse!  They pull up to this small beach area about five feet wide...with...get this...cliffs behind it!  So, I'm thinking....do we just keep walking along the beach?  Oh no...we climb the cliffs.  I wanted to sit down in the mud and cry...but what was left of my pride ...and a lot of help from one of the guys from chuch...I climbed the cliffs.  Yep....I am now a first class, mud stomping, hill tromping, cliff climbing native.  My pretty "wedding outfit" that I thought was suitable for this area is smothered, covered, and chunked, with water, mud, dirt, no telling what else.  I get to the top of the cliffs, and I have to feel bad because this woman has brought up in a bowl, water from the river to wash my legs and feet for me.  So I am standing there with my dress...once again hiked up, and like a little kid...someone is washing my feet.  I look up and there stands about 20 of the village men....laughing at who?????  ME....I really have left an impression here! 

So after I have been tidied by someone else...we go into the church...the hot, muggy, open air kind, and proceed to sit there for 2 hours to wait for the bride.  Now the wedding was suppose to have already started...but apparently, there is no such thing as a kept schedule here.  Oh YES...I forgot to mention that through this whole ordeal...it was raining.  Yep...my torment was complete.  So the wedding after a late bride, lots of island songs that were wearing on my nerves, not one but two rings that didn't fit (apparently they don't try them on here), one sermon, lots of crying(everyone cries at weddings here instead of smiling), and about 3 gallons of my own personal sweat...it ended.  Well, it was really just begining.  We had to wait 2 hours to eat, and then we had to, you guessed it, tromp back down. But get this, we went the easy way this time.  Yeah right!  It was the tiniest bit easier, but I still had to walk barefoot downhill, tromp through more mud, and after one matrix move that saved me from sitting down in the mud, and the help of the guys from school to get me in the boat....I was on my way to home!  The angels were singing, rays of sun beamed down upon me!  Thank you Lord God Almighty!  It is over!  :.(I forgot I still had to get out of the boat.  Yep...I did manage though to get to the car, after I almost capsized the boat getting out, dropped my dress tail in the water and dipped my purse in it also....And this time I had about 50 people watching me.  Any need I had or will ever have, to be the center of attention, has been fullfilled.

Now you want to know if I still like it here?  Yes!  I love it here!  How many others will get to tell a story like this!  I put pictures of this and some others in my album!