African Wedding

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We were really excited about going to our first African wedding. We were invited through Julius, as his friend and colleague Emmanuel was the one getting married. First of all we have to say that being invited to a wedding after meeting someone only once was quite strange, but very nice. Emmanuel got married to a lady called Anna who is originally from Kenya. So it was a Ugandan-Kenyan wedding with many guests and lively colours. We arrived after the ceremony in the church and went directly to the reception, which was outside under some big “party tents”. The area was very nicely decorated in white and green, and the scenery really came to life when all the women came with their dresses that were of all colours that one can imagine.
We sat and waited for nearly two hours before the couple came to the reception. Then there was an endless amount of traditional rituals and speeches. After seeing many wedding speeches on TV, I had the understanding that they should be: rehearsed, about the couple, from close relatives and quite short (to the point). But not in Africa my friends! The speeches here were from all kinds of people, totally improvised, rarely about the couple (one man even had time to promote the fact that he was running for parliament and that everyone should go vote for him) and above all loooooooooooooong… I mean 30-45 minutes long. One more thing, people interrupted their speeches to answer their phones… “I would like to congra… (ringring)….. Hello? Im at a wedding…. Where was I?”
But finally after close to 3-4 hours of speeches and some cool African dancing we got to the point that I had been waiting for since the beginning of the day… the FOOD! There was a sort of buffet with many local dishes. I was hungry as hell so I took everything, even though Ewa told me it was too much. She was right, I couldn’t finish it all. But it was a lot of fun to eat everything with my hands, local style!
Overall it was a nice wedding and above all a cool experience. However I left somewhat confused. There was a mix of this African craziness that I had expected (like the weird shouting the women do), but also a lot of stiff and dull moments. People didn’t really talk that much to each other; they mostly sat around and stared. I think maybe Europeans and other “Westerners” have found the secret to a lively wedding… ALCOHOL and loads of it!
P.S. We are planning to go “White Water Rafting” and it’s gonna be AWESOME!!!!!!!!
Calle

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