The most amazing thing that happened all day, however, occurred tonight. As I sat on the third floor balcony watching the sunset and working on the Mixed Co. album art (sorting through loads of fonts that Ian gave me), I began to hear music down the street. I looked to the east and saw a small building glowing with decorative lights. (It's located right next to the restaurant with the dumplings.) I decided to take a walk down there to photograph it from outside. I had no idea what I was in store for.

I introduced myself to a group of men working on hanging lights and decorations on the giant tent facing the street. They were immediately cool with me photographing them and were altogether a friendly bunch. One man, Viney, stepped up and said something like, "Ah! Inside. You come with me." Turns out, Mauritian weddings last four days and tonight was the first! He took me inside the tent where I saw a gorgeous wedding being set up. The tent was a lovely cream color, glowing with hundreds of christmas-style lights hanging down in a beautifully systematic form. He took me to a back porch area nestled between a giant house and the tent, where I met about six women (dressed in colorful robes and scarves) cooking. One sat on the ground frying some sort of scone-like flat bread. Three other women stood behind a table in the corner making dough and shaping the bread. One woman, Uma, introduced herself. She is lovely. Dressed head to toe in orange with an awesome nose ring, she introduced her self in beautiful English and offered to give me (lots of) food. Viney had already put down a placemat on which he'd plopped a huge variety of Indian foods for me to try. "You eat?" Of course I couldn't say no, and I was so intrigued by the food. I sat down and was handed a piece of piping hot fried dough and began to eat. WOW OH WOW. I was eating a variety of Indian pastes, sauces, cooked fruits, and meats all seasoned exotically and impeccably. Viney was so nice, the kind of man who'd give you the shirt of his back, and kept offering more and more food. Soon he and Uma poured me some Pepsi to drink and then were eager to take a photo of me on my camera. I let them, of course, and had a blast watching him use such a beast of a machine.

Soon thereafter Viney introduced me to his brother, AJ. AJ looks older than Viney and is a bit rounder. But he was immediately full of the same eager willingness to help me and show me an incredible time. After I finished eating, he took me into the house. I walked through a back room full of old Mauritian women (dressed in beautiful, vividly colored robes) and then down a hallway, where I met the groom of the wedding. I went through the house peaking into each room--some plainly furnished bedrooms with silk bed coverings, others quaint living spaces with old furniture and an assortment of hindi-inspired wall hangings. We circled through the house and back outside under the tent as AJ talked a million miles a minute about how the wedding would be tomorrow, and how he'd love for my friends and I to join the festivities. We wound up in the same back porch space as we began and, by this time, a group of teenagers was standing near another table filling small plastic bags with a strange nut. AJ gave me a handful of the nuts to try, of course, and I can honestly say I've never eaten anything quite like them. (A strange mix of a pine nut and some nut too strange to describe.) He offered at least two or three more times to feed me more, offers that I politely turned down. I knew dinner was being served back at the house, so I didn't want to overeat. People of all ages kept coming and going, smiling and saying hello. I introduced myself to most of them and loved seeing their reactions when I'd say that I'm American. (Everyone so far has first guess England, and always get big eyes and a smile when I correct them and say I'm from the USA.) It's fun to be in a place where the USA is adored.

As I stood there amidst the vibrant energy of this family preparing for a wedding, I was so impressed. This is their world. This is their life. This is their normal. It's incredible. There are so many beautiful things here, too many incredible and rich traditions built on centuries of religious and familial practice. And it's beautiful. I especially adored that the entire family was involved in the wedding preparation. There was no silly wedding planner, just a giant group of people who were lovingly preparing for a very special day. Cousins, aunts, uncles, parents, neighbors. I love that. A union of lovers in its simplest, purest form. It truly felt like a celebration.

I eventually left and essentially SKIPPED back to the house SO EXCITED to share with everyone what I just experienced. I ended up walking in on a big dinner that Vedant was leading, but everyone was curious to know what I'd been up to. "WE'RE GOING TO A MAURITIAN WEDDING TOMORROW! WE'RE ALL INVITED!" That was a fun announcement to make. :)

Later that night, the adventures began. I'd been invited to the wedding dance, but when it came time to show up, I didn't hear dancing down the street and assumed plans might have changed (or maybe they were running late?) Turns out, there WAS a dance… just a very different kind of one than I'm used to.

BJ, Grace, Sabrina and I decided to head over and check it out. As we walked through the tent, we were directed to a small room in the front of the house. There we found at least a dozen women sitting while four or five more played a bizarre blend of percussive instruments. One woman closed her eyes and hit a lap drum on both sides. Another banged a small metal cup with two tiny metal rods. Another passionately shook what I can only describe as two very tall linear (not circular) tambourines. And all the while, a woman dressed in brilliant yellow danced in the middle of the room while all watched and sang. (IS THIS REAL LIFE?)

The style in which these women dance is peculiar, and striking. Their movement is at once fluid and clunky, in the most wonderful of ways. I was reminded of a bottle full of ice and water sitting on the floor during a bumpy car ride (an oddly specific metaphor, but appropriate.) As the bottle bounces up and down and from side to side, the water inside moves smoothly like any liquid, but the ice cubes jerk about in mildly abrasive motions. And it all works together, in some strange and powerful mix of movement. So it was with these women. They would pivot on a single foot, stirring the air in front of them with their deep brown hands. Eyes closed and heads to the heavens, they moved about in a way too free to be calculated, but too cohesive to be utterly random. I loved watching when a new woman would get up to dance, because every person moved in a different way. The general motion--ice cubs and water in a bottle--was present, but the specific body shapes and steps varied. One woman in blue would pivot on a single foot all about the room, swishing her hands up and down as if acknowledging and praising the bright light hanging above her. I was photographing them like crazy, though the lighting was dreadful and the photographs probably won't turn out. But I didn't even care--the experience is photographed so vividly in my head.

Soon AJ entered the room and excitedly urged me to start dancing. He asked for my camera, which I willingly gave him, so that he could photograph me and the gang dancing our first Mauritian dance. And dance we did! We stood up and began dancing in the same wild, calm, and free manner we witnessed in the Mauritian women. I had a few surreal moments where I imagined myself seeing this room from above, looking down at us dancing about freely in a tiny room full of colorfully robed Mauritian women singing dark, rich melodies in Hindi; all on a tiny island full of sunshine, wildlife, and so much spirit. Is this real life? Yes. Really incredible life.

Soon enough, Grace disappeared to a side room where she began getting Mandi, which is a floral henna tattoo painted onto the hands of single women at weddings. A tall-standing 20 year old girl with long dark hair was applying the Mandi, as a wide-eyed Grace looked on. SO COOL. So legit.

By the end of the night Sabrina also had Mandi on her hand. We left laughing and completely ecstatic about the unforgettable evening we'd just experienced. Dancing with a room full of love-filled Mauritians across the street from our palatial African house. And it was only day #2!