A Weekend in Labuan

  Sunday 3rd June: I'm just waiting for Patrick to arrive in two hours time and I've had a very interesting weekend that I feel I must write in my blog. Nurliah, who is also my landlady, a Guru Besar who I work with, and friend, invited me to her nephew's wedding celebrations in Labuan which is an  island very close to Brunei. Nurliah comes from a family of ten brothers and sisters and only she and another brother have left the island. The rest of the family have built houses around the simple wooden kampong house that they were born and brought up in, where their mother is still living. It is like a housing estate except that everyone is related. I was staying with Nurliah's younger brother and family who were delightful and their 12 year old daughter was given the job of looking after me! Nina's English was excellent and she was able to tell me about her mother cleaning the house from top to bottom  and her younger brother phoning all his friends about an orang puteh coming to stay!!

Coconut rice

A curry

After being cooked

A thousand hard boiled eggs!

Another curry!

  








The Friday was relatively relaxed with all of us eating together and the karaoke starting but Saturday morning was when everything got into action.There were uncles, aunts, cousins all doing some job to help in the preparations. The organisation was incredible and they were catering for around 500 people and nearly all of it was prepared on Saturday or early Sunday morning, not to mention the wedding bags, the decorations etc.. My attempt at stuffing the coconut leaves with rice and coconut milk was laughable but they were all very patient with me. I was allowed to grate some carrots under much supervision as they obviously thought that wasn't too difficult for an orang puteh! The official wedding ceremony had already taken place three months before at the bride's home and this was the groom's family's turn to throw a party and invite everyone they knew.

The Koran blessing

Orang puteh's blessing

Dancing on a Saturday night!

 The celebrations began on Saturday evening with the bride and groom installed on their thrones and prayers being read from the Koran by the men, while the women waited outside. Then blessings were given to the couple by sprinkling flowers and coconut milk on their hands - apparently taken from the hindu tradition - and then it was karaoke, eating and dancing time which went on until 2 am I believe.There was a traditional band playing Brunei/Labuan music which was very different to the Dusun style of music and dancing that I'm used to now.

Welcoming the groom

From purple to white

The happy couple

 The real helpers were up at 5 a.m. cooking and preparing everything and by 10 o'clock the guests were arriving and we were all changed and ready for the next day. The wedding family team were all dressed in a peach colour - men and women - and the bride and groom were in white sparkly outfits today. The groom " arrived" with a group of boys and men banging welcoming drums and then it continued with lots more eating, socialising, people coming and going, karaoke and to finish the celebration was the cutting of the cake which is taken from the western tradition apparently. My thanks and congratulations to Nurliah's family who all worked in such harmony, male and female, appearing to cater for huge numbers with such ease; managing to look amazing and being extremely kind and welcoming to the stranger in their midst.