So, they called us around 7.30 pm that everything was ready. Four sisters and myself drove then to the reception hall which was in fact a courtyard of a newly constructed guest house in 'downtown' Kiabakari, owned by the former treasurer of my parish (I hope it was not built with Sunday collection though, yikes!). The wedding hall was very nicely decorated with Christmas lights, bedsheets of various colors and other materials, ribbons, flowers etc...
Of course (how could I expect otherwise!) we were among the first guests, so we had to wait for another 45 minutes for the parents and then newly weds themselves to arrive. How convenient, taking under consideration that we had Confirmation on Saturday, construction works were going on, sisters were busy with pre-school, health center and the parish itself...
Anyway, I played Mr. Nice Guy, so all smiles all the way... Then, the protocol began. First, the parents and relatives of the Groom arrived, dancing to Sukuma tribal dances (both newly weds hail form the largest among 120+ ethnic groups constituting the society of United Republic of Tanzania), Then, it was the turn of the parents and relativesof the Bride. All took their seats according to their importance and relation to the wedded couple. Protocol, protocol, protocol...
Then, the Bride and Groom arrived with their little bride and groom, maids and best men and matron. After the ceremony of cutting of a ribbon, they entered and took their places behind a table with a wedding cake.
The cake cutting took place then, after lengthy speeches and explanations.
The Bride and Groom fed each other with pieces of cut cake. Then their witnesses followed their example. Then the Bride and her witness while dancing to Sukuma beats, presented the special small cake to the parents of th Groom, kneeling profoundly. The same then was done by the Groom with his witness, who - while dancing again to Sukuma music, went to the table with parents of the Bride and did the same, this time the Groom shaking hands in very cordial manner which means twisting hands three times...
After that, it was a lot of bla bla from the Master of Ceremony, Mr. Chumvi (Mr. Salt, a nickname but very accurate; the guy was huge with a big belly and lot of talking, adding some salt to every sentence he pronounced)...
After that, the master of champagne came to open champagne so the ceremony for cheers (or Charles as they say here - twisting the word 'cheers' for 'Charles'). He did a lot of shaking of the bottle, showing to everyone. Everyone touched the bottle attesting to its intact condition. Then he blew the cork and spilled half of it on the floor, but everybody was ecstatic, that it erupted in this manner, hailing the guy for his professionalism.
The toast then went on and on and on... People going to touch glasses or bottles of whatever drink or beverage they happened to hold in that particular point of time. I was toasting them with a plastic bottle of still mineral water (no alcohol or sparkling drinks for me anymore, according to doctors).
Then, Mc Chumvi announced that I was very busy and had very important things to go about in the parish, so sisters and myself will have dinner now, and everybody will wait til the next point of the protocol will be observed right after we left. Hmmmm, I called a brother of the Groom, who organized and paid for all this (he is a headmaster of one of secondary schools in the region, and an owner of the house we were renting for our volunteers from Redemptoris Missio Foundation from Poznań). I told him that it was against my conscience to eat alone, so either we eat together or we leave, but I won't eat in a privileged manner.
Well and good. They announced my will and I hoped that now we would get food - everybody I mean. But then suddenly they consulted hastily whispering in the corner of the wedding hall and announced a correction of the former announcement. Now was the time for gifts ceremony! My goodness! I knew we were fried altogether!
After two hours of gifts presentation, following strict protocol, precedence of people, explanations of who is who, and everyone who was called to present his / her / their gifts(s) to the newlyweds talking and talking who they were again and what they want to say to the happy couple and what kind of gift they came with and then unwrapping and presenting etc etc which took ages in every instance, we were almost halfway through as the Groom party was almost done gifting newly weds. As they were finishing slowly that side of the reception hall where the Groom people were sitting, it was about time for the Bride party to get ready to do the same.
Sisters complained that it was taking too long and they were getting tired. I told Mr.Chumvi that it was time for us to leave and I asked him not to make fuss about it. Just to let us go quietly...And we did so and returned home some minutes after 11pm.
As a wedding food, we had tea and nice sandwiches we made for ourselves when we were back home...
'Kifo cha mchicha' is what they say in Tanzania in such a situation. The death of a spinach. Why? Because when you cook spinach, you put a lot of it in a pot, and when it is cooked, you get just a handful of it! The same here - huge expectations, little outcome. Huge clouds, little or no rain.Expectations of a nice food coming to sandwiches at home. Long speeches and lot of artistic bla bla when presenting gifts, and the outcome was quite poor... The more they talked, the less they gave!
Next time I may consider going to the wedding reception around midnight or 1am. I guess it would be a right time to meet people getting ready to eat.
It always amazes me how patient my people are...Newly weds, sitting like pharaoh statues, their witnesses, those little bride and groom, small kids dressed like a bride and groom, sitting with them, doing nothing... Still nature...
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