Not quite wedding crashers...

07:50 14 July 2008

So yesterday I accidentally crashed a wake. We have Sundays off, and I was craving some American interaction (even as my language skills develop, I just can’t have the kind of conversations with Kyrgyz that I can with Americans). I went over to Laura’s house and asked if she wanted to go visit Alex, the other volunteer in our village (the other two were visiting their spouses in Krasne Ryechka – Red River village). After having the obligatory tea at their place (aka a full meal), we departed towards Alex’s house and took the 15 minute walk through the village. As Americans, I am used to being stared at by now, but what is odd is the way they greet. A lot of the times I will get a “Hello!” (the one word of English they know other than Los Angeles and 50 Cent) after I’ve passed them 30 meters behind. I usually find the best diffusion strategy to be, if they stare, greet them in Russian before they have an opportunity to yell at your back. That usually breaks the tension and prevents them from being hostile.

But onto the wake, we arrived at Alex’s house in the evening some time only to find a huge table with about twenty guests around it. My first (American) instinct was, oh dear, I’ve intruded on something I shouldn’t have and should leave. Oh course, to them, it was more guests and we were promptly seated and fed well. The wake was for a distant relative that lived in Russia so the mood was not somber at all and they laughed and joked with us. It ended up being fine, we had a nice conversation with Alex, and our LCF Malika was there. It was also the first meal I had taken in a Muslim household, so I got to experience the Omin. The Omin is a gesture done at the end of the meal that involves everyone at once placing their hands before there face and then sweeping them down and together to the Christian/Catholic looking prayer posture. It’s a very interesting cultural phenomenon and I really like it a lot. I didn’t set out to be like Will Ferrel and crash a Funeral, but it turned out to be a pretty good time.