Bad bokerah, bad bokerah. Every day someone tells me don't leave tomorrow, bad bokerah (the day after tomorrow). This has been going for almost a week and now it is finally time to leave. Tomorrow I will take a 5 am bus to Amman and then a 7 hour bus to damascus. I recently attended 3 or the 4 day bedouin wedding. day one was dancing. the women danced inside in small room with the doors closed and the men danced outside. after a while the women gathered at the outskirts to watch the men dance. the second day was the same, just dancing and the constant running around of the small children. i was invited to someones house for a cup of coffee. here everyone likes to ask you whose house is more beautiful, whose child is better, whose food is more tasty. they are not satisfied with my response that they are both equally beautiful or tasty. the third day, which was really the fourth and last day of the wedding (the day that they would go to get the bride) started much earlier. lunch was huge round trays or rice with chicken in the center. yogurt and salad (cut of cucumbers and tomatoes) on the side. Eaten of course with your hands our a spoon. I, of course, opted for the hand method. Food tastes so much better when you eat with your fingers. AFter going to another families house for something to drink two buses started off on the journey to get the bride. the women in one bus and the men in the other. during most the trip the women played the tablah and sang songs about bringing the bride home to ayn moussa. everyone danced in the ayle of the bus. there is no such thing as seatbelts in Jordan. It's quite normal for a family of 10 to pile into a tiny car. When we arrived at the family of the bride there was more singing and more dancing. The bride, who was made up to the enth degree with gold stars on her forehead, decked in all of the gold that her new husband had bought, with a white hoop skirt wedding gown, said good bye to all of her family. She was shaking and crying the whole time as were many of the other women. Her pinkie had three gold rings on it, one for each segment of her finger. Shortly after arriving we piled back into the buses and the bride went in a shauffered car. The way back was the same -- dancing, singing, the whole works. The distance between the home of the groom and of the bride was about 200 kilometers and about 15 kilometers before we reached the grooms home we met the groom and an entourage of cards that brought all of the family who had not come on the bus. the procession of cars drove throughout the town, constant honking, singing, and druming until we reached the home of the groom. Last night, the day after the wedding, I heard that the sheets were hung and everyone was happy because they were nice and bloody. This is still practiced for most but not all of the bedouins in this area. ok thats all for now ---