At the end of March, we found ourselves invited to two weddings on the same day. One was for the daughter of a neighbour that I have been getting to know, and the other was for one of the workers who has been building our vocational training centre and workshop.
In order to try and keep everyone happy we decided to divide and conquer, so Rich went to the workers wedding and I went to our neighbours wedding. Here are some of the photo's from Rich's day.
Rich and Hans ended up being part of the official wedding party, which involved arriving early and sitting and waiting for several hours for something to happen. They got to wear their new Kanzu's (long white-ish gowns) and Kofia's (hat) though!
It also meant that Hans got to wear a funny jacket thing and have a tea towel wrapped around his kofia.
There's always dancing to celebrate the wedding and it happens throughout the day - they don't just save it for the barn dance at the end!! I love that the old guy with the walking stick is still able to strutt his stuff right in the middle of all the women!
Here the groom's party have arrived at the brides house where the ceremony took place. This will often happen at the Mosque, but we are learning that there are many ways of doing things here and no two weddings that we have been to have been the same. Apparently at this point there was a formal agreement between the groom and the father of the bride about dowry and other such matters.
Here the groom's party have arrived at the brides house where the ceremony took place. This will often happen at the Mosque, but we are learning that there are many ways of doing things here and no two weddings that we have been to have been the same. Apparently at this point there was a formal agreement between the groom and the father of the bride about dowry and other such matters.
The guy in the front of the picture with the clipboard is writing out the marriage certificate and we think is some kind of official. Again it's sometimes difficult to know who is doing what and what exactly is going on! We try to ask and we are learning new things all the time but as I said, each occasion is different and it's hard for us wazungu (white folks) to figure it out all the time!
Look out for part 2: The girls, coming soon!
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