Experience of a Wedding

Last week I wrote Anticipation of a Wedding, and here is the follow-up, in pictures! If you read carefully, you'll see all seven of my anticipations became experience!

Waiting with the choir for the wedding to start.
It started a little late, and went on for 10 hours: ceremony, photos-at-beach, and reception!

The groom meets the bride and lifts her veil to check if it's really her:)
I didn't know that was a custom!

The wedding party dances the bride and groom to the front of the church.
The key to TZian weddings, according to the MC later at the reception, is TARITIBU!,
which means slowly and methodically... So walk slowly, dance slowly, eat cake slowly.
Maybe it's to make the special day last and be strong in your memory.

Mr. Sakwa is definitely happy.

The pastor shares a message. My favorite part was when he told Sakwa that his wife should be as shiny as him;
if he has shiny shoes, make sure hers are shiny; if his hair is shiny, hers should be too!
Somewhere in the sermon is when I saw Mr. Sakwa wiping the tears from his eyes:)

It was good to share the celebration with our other former guard, Jeremiah.

Me and the wedding party.

Wedding photos at the beach! I wish I could show you driving here...
I drove in the wedding procession with the best of them: honking, weaving in-and-out... and I learned:
it's customary to leave your hazard lights on the whole time.

My favorite photo of bride and groom.

Mama of the bride and Mama of the groom. Mama Sakwa and I hung out together a lot,
since I was considered his "dada" (sister).

We danced gifts up to and around the bride and groom.
The reception was full: cake cutting, speeches, dinner (pilau and soda included!), etc...
It was just harder to get OK photos because of the light.

Anticipation of a Wedding

Tomorrow is the big day! Our former guard weds his lady love! (See Hongera Mr. Sakwa! for backstory.) I've only been to one Tanzanian wedding, and that was a few years ago, for a couple I didn't even know. So, I'm excited to truly celebrate this one. Here are some things that I'm anticipating:

1. I think the service will be long, followed by more ceremony at the reception... 
2. Part of which will be gift giving. We went colorful for the gift, because that seems culturally appropriate. 
3. The fun part about gift giving is I'll probably get to dance the gift up to the front of the room.
4. Sometime in the day the wedding party will leave to take photos along the lake. I've been asked to drive the parents of the groom there. That means I get to be part of the wedding car procession... Usually cars are decorated with big ribbons, there is a band playing in the back of a truck, everyone is honking, and all the cars swerve back and forth the whole route!!
5. We'll probably eat pilau, a traditional rice dish with potatoes, spices, and maybe bits of meat. We'll definitely drink soda. 
6. Knowing Mr. Sakwa, I think I'll see some tears in the ceremony! 
7. And, it's guaranteed that I'll learn something new about TZian culture.

Walking on Flowers

One of the little sweet things in my life is walking on flowers. Plumeria or Frangipani, they grow on trees and have a delicious scent. My current house has maybe five trees; they drop on my path to the gate and I see them from above when I watch the sunset from my rock. The learning center has some too, so they are the beginning and end of my walk to school everyday. :)

8 3/4 in. Snakes

I'm having a lot of fun teaching this semester. After singing/Bible/prayer time, I start out with three rounds of math: 1st grade, 3rd grade, then 6th grade. You see, I let myself warm up to the harder concepts. By the time I get to 6th grade we're graphing algebraic expressions with multiple variables! Here you see 3rd grade, with their very accurately measured snakes: each 8 3/4 in. long. I highly value accuracy in snakes.

After math is three rounds of writing, read-aloud, and African geography. I've posted some photos of that on Facebook. It's fun teaching, especially because the kids are LOVELY!