Life Goes On . . .

The Zeffa
Originally uploaded by Jane Rubio.

Yesterday, while we were saying bye to the kids, a zeffa band was preparing outside. The hall next to the school is used for weddings. And there are weddings every Saturday and Sunday.

Usually the bride is inside with all her people. And the groom comes down the street with his people. And they're singing and being happy. And then these guys in the band, start playing their derbeke and flutes and traditional Lebanese music. And the people all clap and dance. (I would have taken pictures of that but I gave the camera to Ayman to take pictures in Beirut, which he didn't.)

Then they go into the hall for about an hour. Take pictures with the happy couple. Eat baklawa and chocolate. And then they say bye to the couple. This is when everyone gets all sad and cries, because the bride is leaving her family.

I went to a traditional Druze wedding last weekend. The guy's family came to her house with the zeffa band. And then we all walked to the town hall. People threw rice at us from the balconies. Rice hurts, by the way. And at one part, we had to stop playing music and be quiet because a neighbor had died. They actually were considering not havin the band at all, but they negotiated something. And then to the hall for photos and sweets.

At one point, the bride, my buddy, was talking on her cell phone while she was sitting on her throne at the front of the hall. I was considering calling her, too.

Later, that night, was the Sahra. The big night party. Nabila sang Fairuz. Nabila is the bomb and always sings. When we did karaoke at the Hard Rock, she almost got a record contract.

Randa and Rabih went to Batroun for their honeymoon. They came back on Friday after the bombing started. They took back roads. I read on lebanesebloggers that they took out one of the roads from Batroun. I don't know if it was before or after or what. But they're okay and back in their village. Rabih bought a new Alfa card because their MTCphone wasn't working.

I don't have pictures from that wedding because I lent my camera to Rania. But I invited an American and she took pictures. This is the girl who hopefully made it to Syria two days ago, but I haven't heard from her.