December 04, 2006

An Unforgettable Celebration

This is a pretty innocent looking party, right? A wedding perhaps, or maybe a big birthday party. It was a party alright, but the guest of honor never even left the house. His entire extended family + 2 very white people ate until their stomach's nearly burst, slept in front of the TV, then returned to eat some more. Kind of like Thanksgiving Day, except the TV was spitting out words I didn't understand and there were definitely no Lions or Cowboys playing. What were we celebrating? I can tell you what I was celebrating - the fact that I wasn't the guest of honor. You see, the guest of honor was inside recuperating from a little surgery. He was circumcised the night before. Oh joy. People do not get circumcised here until they're around the age of 10-12, and the entire family celebrates the occasion.

Here is Sharon cooking some "ayam merah" (red chicken). One of the ladies just handed her a big spoon, spat out some directions in a foreign language, and enjoyed the sight of a white woman cooking what had to be 5 or 6 cut up chickens in a ginormous wok. Luckily Sharon has already learned most of the cooking terms in our new language, isn't shy about attempting new things, and had several ladies to step in to help her.

Judging by the way these sweet ladies are smiling in this picture, you'd think that we were all dear friends or at least good acquaintances. Truth be told, we've never met them before, don't know their names and we didn't even talk to them at the party. As they were leaving, one of them looked at Sharon and asked, sheepishly, "Can take picture with you?" Ah, the life of a movie star... who isn't in any movies... who isn't famous... who only vaguely resembles a famous person (click here for proof)... but who must be famous because all white people are movie stars. These ladies would be sad to know that the only thing we've done in L.A. is eat at In-and-Out Burger, although we did stand next to Tori Spelling once while waiting for our bags in the airport. I know what you're thinking... "You've stood next to Screech's girlfriend?" Yep. Be jealous.

7 comments:

Anonymous said...

Party it up that pink BFF! LOVE IT! Did you plan to match the decorations?

Anonymous said...

Yes I did, but I made a joke about it before they did:)
At least no one else had my outfit- the ladies in the pic plus about 10 others all wore the same outfit. They come to sing prayers from the Quran at special events in their village (All the Quran is sung so its easier to memorize) They're kinda like Ladies Ensembles at Southern Fairs and 5th Sunday Sings.

C-Love said...

Oh, the circumcision party. I remember it just like it was yesterday... haha.

Did you guys get to even meet the "guest of honor?" I don't know if the pain or the embarassment of it all would keep me inside.

Brandon and April said...

you look so pretty in pink! that's probably why they wanted their picture with ya

Anthony and Sharon said...

The guest of honor stayed inside all day, but I (Anthony) got to meet him. Only men were allowed inside. The poor boy was in pain, and I'm sure he was more than embarrassed because it's culturally appropriate for the men to "inspect" the work.

Anonymous said...

Actually...the lady in the middle has her hand on my bum. So it's either the pink or the rare honor of grabbing a white woman's rear (which my backside is nearly to her shoulder so its not like it took that much effort for her to succeed)

Brandon and April said...

bum grabber. maybe it's just cuz you look freakishly tall compared to them and she couldn't reach your waist. or maybe she just wanted to touch your rear end. or maybe it's cuz in those tunics it's hard to tell where the waist stops and the bum starts. I personally think it's the second.