Three of my co-workers are getting married…in the next three weeks. How this happened, I have no idea. It’s not like Portland where everyone tries to get married during the three months it isn’t raining. It’s beautiful here everyday!
You should typically expect a Kenyan wedding to last all day but we were told this wedding would be different. The invitation said it started at 10:00 am so we left for the wedding at 11:00 am (we’re on Kenyan time after all). As we’re walking through a field we follow the sound of African music until we reach the two white tents where the wedding ceremony will take place. At 12:30 pm, we are still one of the few guests that have arrived. Lucy and Eli are now restless and Anne, at 9 months pregnant, has to pee. They decide to leave making me the only mzungu left at the wedding. Around 1:00 pm a matatu shows up and 20 or so people unload and join us. For some reason I thought this meant the wedding would start soon. Wrong!
At 2:00 pm, the wedding party finally shows up. Swahili music has been blaring for so long that I now have a headache. Esther looks beautiful in her wedding dress and a local choir sings as they march into the tented area. The pastor noticed that I was the only mzungu and kept repeating, “I’ve heard some of you do not speak Kiswahili. Please have your sister translate for you.” After hearing this the fourth time and everyone turning around to stare at me, I finally made eye contact and told him to continue on with the ceremony. Speeches, prayers, and long winded Kenyan pastor’s sermons took up the next hour.
even Eli thought the music was too loud
Then, the food was brought in. I had decided that I would leave at 4:00 no matter what was happening…so I had one hour to eat and experience whatever else they would do before my deadline. They served quite the spread – stew, goat, chapati, rice pilau (rice with seasoning and meat), mukimo (mashed potatoes with maize), and cake. No forks. No napkins. No drinks. I had a few bites of everything but then I made a deal with someone to swap my plate of food for their chapati. Well worth it!
ohhh the food
After food was pictures. Everyone seemed really excited about this part for some reason. I figured we’d all watch the family and bridal party take pictures but come to find out I was going to be in the pictures. The May’s and I told Esther we would attend her wedding under the one condition that we weren’t made the guest of honor (this happens at every event any mzungu attends). I guess pictures are the exception though. So I stood there in the middle of these two families that are joining, holding the husband and wife’s hand with mothers and fathers surrounding us to take pictures. It was odd to say the least. I felt as though I was interrupting something very important.
I love that I'm the only one smiling
Then, the most important part of the ceremony…when guests get their pictures taken. It’s like a picture you’d find in the paper of someone receiving a plaque. The guest holds half the present as it’s passed off and everyone stops just long enough in the process of it all to stop to look at the camera with their cheesy grin and take the picture. I now understand why it’s so important to Kenyans to give their gift in a big box.
So five hours after I arrived, I finally left the wedding as it continued on. The rest of the staff and girls that went didn’t make it back to the Centre until after 6:00 pm.
You ARE the only one smiling. How hillarious is that?