Here comes the bride! 10/6

We spent the morning doing more reading and blogging (my goal is to be completely caught up by Tuesday night before we go back to school).  I started the book Gone Girl by Gillian Flynn today and am about 100 pages in already.  I have definitely enjoyed having the time here to read books for pure enjoyment. 

Katie, Doreen, and I at the wedding

Then in the afternoon we got ready for the wedding and headed out around 2:30.  The church ceremony was at 2:00 in Kasese, but Doreen said we wouldn’t go to that.  So we went to the reception, which was also in Kasese at the Rwenzori Safari Guest House.  When we arrived they were still setting up for the reception.  It took place in a garden-type area that was really beautiful.  There were a lot more decorations and little details than I was expecting.  There were four tents set up all accented with pink and green as must have been the wedding colors.  Two of the tents were designated for the families to sit under, one was for friends and other guests, and the other one was for the bridal party.  There was a DJ set up under the friends’ tent.  There was a cake set-up in the middle.  One of my favorite touches was the bubble machine!  And a grand-entrance way set up for the bride and groom to walk through when they arrived, with a red carpet that lead to the bridal party tent.  We ended up waiting a good two and a half hours before the wedding party showed up, but most of the time I was entertained watching everyone set up for the reception as well as by the MC who hosted the evening.  The MC would sing and dance to every song that played, which was quite entertaining, although I’m not sure if that was in his job description or not. 

Katie and I at the wedding

The bridal party tent

One of the family tents

The grand entrance

The bride and groom and the bubbles!

Once the bride and groom arrived all the people from the family tents lined the red carpet and welcomed them in a dancing tunnel.  It was quite fun!  After they made their way to their tent they all lined up and some words were said, unfortunately for us, most of the wedding was in Lukunzo so I didn’t understand much of anything that was said.  Next they cut the cake.  Cake before dinner? Nice!  The bride and groom fed each other a piece of cake, similar to the tradition in the United States.  There was no smooshing of the cake in each other’s faces though.  After that the cake was brought around on plates and the guests were to take a small piece.  We did, and it was delicious!  Definitely different than any cake I’ve ever had before, but it was a sweet and it was good!  Next we ate dinner.  The dinner was a traditional Ugandan meal with rice, potatoes, matoke, cabbage, groundnut soup, and some meat (I didn’t take the meat, as I haven’t really been eating it here).  We went to sit down and Katie and I were like oh we forgot silverware, but then we looked around and realized everyone was eating with his or her hands.  Of course!  This is completely common here, but something Katie and I had not yet experienced.  So we dug right in.  It ended up being kind of fun eating with our hands, because everyone was doing it so you didn’t feel weird or silly. 

All the flower girls

Katie and Doreen eating dinner...with their hands

We hung out for a bit longer after dinner and then we headed out.  It was definitely a great cultural experience to have here, and I am so glad we went.  I should mention that the wedding was for the brother of a teacher from the school we are working at.  So we didn’t know the bride or the groom, but there were two teachers from the school there and their kids, so we knew a few people.  We also brought Doreen and Samson as our dates.  We did not bring a gift to the wedding as that is not expected, but we did pledge money, which is expected.  For weddings, they print out an estimated budget sheet and then they ask anyone attending or not to donate money to the wedding.  So Katie and I made a donation.  Anyways, we were really excited to be invited and to experience a wedding in Uganda.  We were definitely surprised by how Westernized it seemed to be.  And we were a little thrown off by how royally we were treated there.  We sat in the front row, we were brought two Cokes when no one else had any soda at all, we ate first, we were served the cake first, and we were even recognized as guests at the wedding in a speech.  Oh to be white in Uganda.  But we enjoyed ourselves to say the least.

Ruthie and I

Samson, our driver, and I

Here's a video of them cutting the cake.  They lit it with what looked like fireworks and then put it out with extinguishers.  It still tasted good though!

We came home and Skyped with everyone back home and then read some more, blogged some more, and went to bed.