Today is important for a couple of reasons. First it is National Leprosy Day. Leprosy affects thousands in Nepal and the Mission Hospital in Anandaban is treating thousands every year. The disease is a treatable disease. It is caused by a bacteria and can be cured by an antibiotic. You cannot walk the streets or go to the hospital without seeing the grave results of what Leprosy can do to
you.
Today is also important because our neighbors are having a wedding at their house. A wedding in Nepal is much different from a wedding in the west. First of all the bride and groom may not even know each other. Weddings are arranged by the parents and if they are hindu or buddhist the local Sadhu will help arrange the whole thing. The parents of the bride will pay a dowry to the groomes family and often times poor castes cannot marry off their daughters because they cannot afford a dowry.
The brides are usually pre-pubescent girls. This is because Hindus believe that the parents of the bride will have a better chance of making it to heaven or enlightenment if their daughters are married that early. After the wedding she becomes property of the husbands family. This is often a bad thing because many will fight with their motherinlaws. The bride will often have to stop going to school and begin working for her new family.
There are many religeous rituals that are part of the wedding. The bride will begin to worship her husband as a god. She will have to wash his feet every morning and drink the water that she used. She will always wait to eat until he is finished and she will work around the house from that point on. She will never walk in front of him or go through a door way first. Women in Nepal work harder than anybody I have ever seen.
The wedding will often involve a marching band that will march through the streets throughout the night carrying the new bride and groom. There will be dancing, eating, and drinking throughout the night. Needless to say tonight we will probably not get much sleep.
Despite what you may think, divorce is very rare. Western women are much more likely to leave their husband than a Nepali woman. Maybe the reasons are financial and maybe the reasons are because of the culture.
Posted by Jon at January 25, 2004 05:53 AMHave you seen the faces of the brides? Doesn't sound like their wedding would be a happy day for them.
Posted by: MiChal at January 25, 2004 07:57 AMPerhaps divorce is uncommon because it is safer to stay and know that you will be fed and clothed than to leave and face disgrace and certain poverty and danger. Not really much diff than some instances in our culture. Many women stay in bad marriages and even abusive marriages because they have become convinced that they could not survive without "this man".
And, in most states, it is a misdemeanor to beat your wife, but a felony to mistreat your dog. God is what makes a marriage viable. I know without the grace and strength of God, Dave probably couldn't stay married to me!!
I continue to be amazed at all that we take for granted. God grant peace to Nepal! Love you guys - DonnaP.
Posted by: Donna Perkins at January 25, 2004 11:26 AMWhat a sad state sin has left us in! In one society, marriage is maintained-yet the one who is called to sacrificial love demands to be worshipped. In the other society, divorce conveniently allows the "sacrificial lover" to lay down his sword and give up the fight. Men of God may we never lose heart in our call to lay down our lives for our wives and children. To Him be the Glory forever and ever. Amen
Posted by: Bob Pair at January 27, 2004 11:02 PMI pray that your marriage will be a witness to your neighbors....that God will use your marraige to demonstrate to them what love and committment can look like with Christ at the center of your lives. I especially pray for the new wife who has to drink the dirty foot water....may her husband meet Jesus the Christ!
Posted by: Jenny at January 28, 2004 02:17 PM