Wedding preparations

This weekend my neighbors daughter is getting married (it must be the season for weddings now I guess ;) and today they started preparing the area where the wedding will take place. Its normal to celebrate just outside your house, and the whole neighborhood takes part in both the preparing and the celebration. Today all the men put up a bunch of "party tent" type tents, reaching from the brides house and all the way across the street. They also built several brick ovens/grills that will be used for all the cooking. Apparently there will be a few hundred people coming, so they need some huge casseroles (some apparently can hold 20 kg of rice!) and lots of space for grilling meat.

Me and my room-mates went over to see if we could help with something, and we got to help peel and grate coconuts, and cut and wash banana leaves. The coconuts will be made into some kind of candy I think, and the banana leaves will be used to wrap rice or something else inside it for steaming. Before we got to do anything though, we were treated to a big meal of rice, chicken, noodles, veggies and sweet tea, for it is not good to work before one has eaten! :)

 Still working on sitting cross-legged, I'm now good for like 20 minutes it this positions before my feet start hurting ;) You have to be careful how you sit, because showing the bottom of your feet is really disrespectful, as is pointing with your feet toward someone.

 Young jack fruit. Less ripe fruit of this kind is considered a vegetable, while more mature fruit is considered a fruit

Getting the fire going