17/8 and 18/8: Wedding!

Today I went out shopping as I wanted, not with Sheila or Susan as they weren’t home, but Patrick Jr. the one that is ‘in charge’ in a way in my Kilimanjaro climb and might be my guide. Because if I went alone, apparently, I would only get the Chinese jeans or not be able to find the real ones. I got two pairs of jeans and two shirts (who on later inspection might be a bit small). The feeling of wearing jeans again was worth it. I also spoiled myself a little because afterwards I went to Africafe and bought hot chocolate and a chocolate fudge cake, so now I won’t need more chocolate for a while, but it was really good! I went there because I had been told we needed to buy a gift for the wedding, as we had already paid quite a bit for the food I didn’t really want to, but felt I had to. So I had asked the others if they wanted to buy one with me, and I sat there waiting for their response. Some had bought something and others didn’t want to, so I ended up buying what everyone had told me to: a kanga! And it was way, way too expensive, though I got the price 15.000 tsh down it was still way too much and something best left in the past as it was probably unnecessary, but then again it was a really nice night so maybe it was worth it. Now I really want to tell about the Tanzanian wedding, though I think this precise wedding was very western inspired. It was at a hotel in a big ball room with round tables and chairs draped in white with the chairs having different color fabrics around different tables, all in the wedding colors: red, gold and black. Many of us didn’t really understand how they could use black as a wedding color. The middle of the table had a bouquet of flowers there was a kind of bar for drinks and when we came the food was being brought in. we were way underdressed, we had just been told to be in whatever we had, most of them were in the most fancy dresses I have ever seen and these were western style fancy with bare shoulder and everything. When the important people started to come we went to stand by the red carpet leading from the entrance into the ballroom. We had been given a kind of napkin and now everyone was waving it around in the air while dancing to the music. This continued for a long time, until the bridesmaids/flower girls and boys came. They had a special dance prepared so we had to get out of the way. Then at last the bride and groom arrived in an elaborate style. Then they had to introduce everyone and when they mentioned someone that person would stand up and wave. We got there around 6pm and the dinner started at 9pm, so this all took some time. There was a lot of food, but it appeared not to be enough for all, which is very bad at a Tanzanian wedding. Before we got any food the bride and groom had to do the cake thing giving it to each other and then came the Tanzanian ‘cake’ that means bad luck if not present. A goat. A very dead goat, with everything, the head was held up and it still had hair and everything. They then did the same with little pieces of the goat. Then we ate, and it was really good. After dinner the presents were presented by walking up the red carpet with the gift and all the givers while they were dancing of course. When this was all done it was around 11pm and it was still going strong, but as some of the other volunteers had to get up early the next day we decided to call a cab and get home. I didn’t have to get up early, but I still had much to do the next day, like trying to Skype with my sister. We ended up just chatting, but it was still very good to be able to just write and write. I also had emails to send and things to plan and that is basically how the day went, very uneventful, but that is needed sometimes too. And there are coming two people more to live in the house that I live very early tomorrow morning so I wanted to do some things before waking up to find them here. I am really looking forward to maybe finally getting some volunteer friends here, or just people to talk to and do things with, though I do feel bad for them, for arriving on a Monday instead of a Sunday like me. Because they won’t be here before 5am or 6am like me and the children in the day care start arriving before 8am so they probably won’t get a whole lot of sleep.