Love Is in the Air

Ever since I arrived there has been construction work going on at the house next door to where I'm staying. The driveway was repaved, a bunch of trees and bushes were removed, and the entire exterior was repainted, though not in the safest way...

I sent this photo to the safety folks at LBNL and their reaction was "what the...?"

The driveway repaving project

I learned at 8 am yesterday morning why all this work was happening, when the band started playing...

There was a wedding at the house yesterday, complete with lights, a tent, and of course the band that included a horn section. Turns out this is wedding season in Nepal, and there are a lot of weddings happening around here. Pretty much everybody here at the Build Change office has gone or is about to go to a wedding in the next few weeks, some are going to more than one (not unexpected given how young everybody here in the office is). Even one of my Nepali friends who is going to school in America just posted photos of a wedding she attended there.

Weddings are big events in Nepal, even more so than they are in America. They are large, loud, and all day affairs. There are also a lot of flowers being worn by women and being strewn on cars. Small weddings doesn't appear to be an option here; even the ones in backyards are large.

I'm not sure why December is such a popular month for weddings. Maybe it's because the weather is decent here like June is in America. Maybe there is a Hindu tradition surrounding weddings during this time. Or maybe there is just a lot of love in the air. It does make things more colorful around here. I am thankful though that the band stopped playing around 6:30...