A South African Wedding

I experienced my first South African wedding!  Here weddings are a community event-everybody helps and everybody participates.  Friday night before the wedding we had a bunch of women over baking cookies for hours.  I have never seen so many cookies before.  Luc and Petunia were out of town, so I was hanging out with our next door neighbor Ellen.  Saturday morning by 8 am we were over at the house where the wedding was taking place (two doors down), chopping vegetables and preparing chicken.  All the mommas and grandmas were so excited to have a lekoa (white person) there, and wearing one of their aprons and chopping vegetables with them to boot.  It was actually a lot of fun (and a lot of work) getting to know people as I worked alongside them.  

One of the grandmas insisted I run back to the house to get my camera.  She then proceeded to take me around having me pose for pictures so that I could show people back home what South African weddings are like.  She had me pose stirring the pots and doing work.  After each picture she would say, “See?  You are not far from home!  This is your home!”  It was so touching to have a group of people embrace me so fully without even knowing me.  They made lunch for people who were helping out-cow intestine and porridge.  One bite (and the horrible stench) was enough to convince me I never want to eat that again.  Thankfully I got away with not eating it because there were so many people around and so much chopping to do.  :)

Around 3:30 the bride and groom arrived.  They dance down the street with their wedding party, apparently to show off to any ex-boyfriends and girlfriends that they are now married.  After a bunch of speeches and some food, the wedding party went off to change.  The bride and her bridesmaid change into the bride’s tribal outfits, and the groom and his groomsmen into the groom’s tribal outfits.  They then march down the street again and do typical dances.  Everybody marches around them singing and cheering.  It was so much fun!  I’ve posted pictures and videos on my Facebook page. 

Normally the party apparently goes until late, but by 7 PM most of the wedding people were leaving.  No worries though, because the bride’s brother was having a birthday party immediately after the wedding-so they just kept the sound equipment and started it up again.  South African’s are all about house music, so they were blaring that all night long.  Exhausted after not getting much sleep the two nights before, I went home at 10 thinking I would lie in bed sleepless for hours.  Instead I passed out and had a great night’s sleep.  There’s a wedding a week from this Sunday, so I’m excited to experience another one!