last night i had dinner with three fellow travelers. on the way out of the restaurant, we noticed a small crowd around the window to the restaurant next door and the blaring sounds of arab pop music. we stopped to see what was going on. through the window we could see a crowd of people dancing. "what's that?" i asked someone next to me. "a wedding party." he answered.
meanwhile, the people inside noticed the four gringo faces peering through the window and started motioning for us to come and join the party. as we debated what to do some guys rushed out of the party, grabbed our hands and pulled us in.
suddenly, the video camera was pointed at us and we were dancing--or at least trying to mimic the moves that everyone was doing around us. we were probably pretty pathetic, but the crowd loved it. everyone in the room seemed to take our photo with their cell phone and we are now a substantial portion of someone's wedding video.
there were no woman in the room. i asked where the bride was, and apparently, she doesn't come to the wedding celebration. "women cannot be where men are dancing" the guy next to me explained. "but what about her?" i asked, pointing to the belgian woman who was in our dinner group. "no problem" he said. like many things, foreign women are exempt.
the interesting thing is the men would dance together with fairly sensual moves. it was hard for me to dance with them without laughing. it didn't help when they sprayed the crowd with shaving cream and perfume.
at one point, they hoisted the groom up in the air (they also tried to grab me, but i didn't let them. the groom didn't seem to mind when he was upstaged by us). as they help him up, they passed a wrapped gift over to him. he opened the package to reveal a suit--tie and jacket. then they started pulling off the groom's clothes as they help him in the air for everyone to see, with a video camera rolling. once they got off his pants, they dressed him in the suit and lowered him to the ground. a car pulled up outside with the bride, the groom went into the car, and they drove off together. the party continued for another hour and then ended just as suddenly. at one point the music stopped, the man next to me said "khalas" and everyone left.
