Kitchen Party

This Saturday I attended my first 'Kitchen Party'. I would describe a kitchen party as a bridal shower on steroids. What happens is that you bring a wrapped gift with your name attached to it. They pile the gifts in the middle of the floor. There is drumming and dancing and then the bride-to-be comes crawling in with two councilors, one in front, one behind. They are cover with a cloth and they make there way up to the front of the room. The bride-to-be is then unveiled and they begin to pick up gifts and say who it is from. My gift was the first to be selected... I didn't know what I was suppose to do! Basically I discovered that you go up to the front, kneel down in front of the bride and unwrap your gift (which has something to do with the kitchen). You then explain how to use the gift, then you are suppose to dance. You tie a chitangy around your waste and they drum. I think it was pretty hilarious to see this white girl dancing and many people wanted to take videos on their cell phones! I don't have any pictures of me dancing though. To end the dance you lay down on the ground on your side and clap twice then flip to the other side and clap twice. It is a way of showing respect. After about 1/2 of the gifts were open the groomsmen and groom came dancing in and he presented the bride with flowers and a gift. The men then leave (after getting dinner) and the women then eat and finish the gift opening. There was quite the spread of rice, potatoes, beef stew, chicken, coleslaw, rolls and soda. I think the food might have given me some issues though since it had been sitting out for awhile. I had stomach problems at church the next day and a real awkward experience that I don't really want to write about. Between church services on Sunday we visited our friend Mari (from Finland) and ate lunch with her and had ice cream and got to watch some CNN. These were major treats for us and I also borrowed some of her books because I have read all the interesting, non-text books that we brought. The cell phone networks were not working this weekend, I am not sure what the issue was but hopefully we can receive calls from home this week. Love you all much!