Block Party

For the last few days a family down the street has been having a smashing party!  Each night the music has been loud and they’ve had people coming all hours of the night.  You’d be surprised though to find out why they are having this party.  It’s because their 13 year old son was just circumcised!  He has now become a man and the whole of the city has been invited to the party.  They began preparing the food on Thursday of last week and the last of the guests came and left tonight.  Joel and I were privileged to have been able to go and experience this very cultural event.  When we arrived we were expected to shake everyone’s hand, Indonesian style (very weakly- not like a good firm American handshake!) give our gift of cash to the father of the guest of honor, and then help our selves to the snacky food on the table.  There were chairs everywhere to sit on and so we got our food and took a seat.  What we didn’t know was that last night was the men’s night to go and tonight was the ladies.  Joel and another 2 men were the only one’s there tonight (one of whom was a foreigner like us) but no one seemed bothered. Maybe they just know we are still learning!  After the snacky food, we were invited to eat the more substantial food; rice, vegetables, soybean cakes and noodles.  We chatted with a few people and then made our exit.  This may sound to you like a rude way to appear at a party, but while we were there some 20 Indonesian ladies did the same.  People from the market are invited, people from our neighborhood and I’m sure family from other cities were there too.  All dressed to the nines!  I am not sure what underlying things are going on that we didn’t pick up on but mainly I think the purpose was to eat.  Maybe later, we’ll understand more but for now we can say we have done it and it was a painless experience… at least for us J.