Sibo's Wedding

---

One of Jenn’s colleagues, Sibo, got married, and we attended the church ceremony about 15 miles outside of Kigali. First we met up with the groom, who arrived in two white Toyota Corollas decorated with ribbons, similar to how one would wrap a gift box. We thought he was going to show us the way to the church, but we started heading in the opposite direction. Seemingly in the middle of nowhere, we stopped and another of Jenn’s colleagues ran to our car to tell us that a truck had gotten a flat tire, and asked if we could go help. We did a 180 and found the truck about a mile back, but the tire had already been changed in record time. Again we did a 180 to join the two wedding cars as we continued to make our way up a mountain through extreme dust to pick up the bride. At this point, the wedding was scheduled to begin. We pulled up to the bride’s house, and she came out with her side of the wedding party. Our car became part of the wedding caravan with three fragrant women riding in the back seat with their fruit basket and associated fruit flies.

With our three passengers chattering away in Kinyarwandan, we began to make our way back down the mountain as everyone from the neighborhood watched. To make up time, we drove mach 5 (Jenn was driving, actually) to reach the church an hour and a half late. Everyone from our wedding party rushed inside. Jenn halted just inside when she realized another wedding was going on. In shock, we watched as Sibo and his bride marched up to the alter, and the other couple got out of their way. Then we noticed, there were a total of three couples at the alter, and understood that multiple weddings were being conducted at once. We sat amongst the guests for all three weddings, and were quite the spectacle as the only non-Rwandans in attendance.

The wedding was completely in Kinyarwandan, but Alex was able to follow what was happening since it was a traditional Catholic ceremony. However, in the middle of the ceremony, each couple held a traditional Rwandan peace basket, and guests walked up and gave money. For our donation, we were photographed and filmed standing next to the couple on the alter. To complete our spectacle, Alex partook in communion and said the Lord’s Prayer in English. To everyone’s surprise, the church was not struck by lightning.

After the ceremony, we watched the bride and groom have pictures taken outside the church. Unfortunately, it was starting to get late/dark, so we had to return to Kigali without attending the reception.

---

Photos

Innocent, the Best Man
Outside the church

Comments

[Mom]

Too cute!!
That's my daughter! The race car driver!! Thanks for sharing this event with us with such detail and humor. What a wonderful experience! These will be memories that will last a lifetime for you two.