know we went to Victoria Falls to celebrate my birthday but I thought I
would share with you what I happened on my actual bday, on the 14th.
team heated up water on the fire so I got to take a warm bucket
shower!!!! For lunch we had spaghetti with chicken in it…yum! Gracious,
the girl’s house mother (who is our age) had lunch with us. It was the
last day we had with her before she went to visit her family. We were
sad to say bye to Gracious, because she was such a good friend to us.
Anyway
later that afternoon, Sammie, Nathan, Stephanie and I all left to go to
a traditional Zambian Wedding. We walked 7 kilometers through the bush
and over a mountain to get there too. We finally got there just before
dark. Then the singing began.
night before the ceremony everyone stays up all night singing and
dancing. It was a long night, but Nathan was able to deliver a sermon
at like midnight. We sang and danced with the Nymphande choir
throughout the night. We also spent a lot of time asking questions to
pass the night, while hovering over hot coals to stay warm…it was cold!
Then
next morning we waited until we joined the choir again to sing and
dance while the bride and groom came out of their huts and then began
the slow procession up to the church.
to know about traditions before attending something like this. The
bride and groom had their heads down the whole time and we thought it
was the saddest thing we ever saw BUT we found out that it’s respectful
to the in-laws to have your head down the first time you ‘meet’ them.
That it’s culturally offensive to not be solemn. I know we are told to
think that cultural differences aren’t necessarily ‘right or wrong,
just different’ but I’m very grateful that we don’t have this
tradition. They didn’t get to watch or see anything really, it’s
suppose to be a joyous day and they had to act like it wasn’t.
After
the ceremony we went back to the village and there was more singing and
dancing. The bridal party danced the cake all the way to the front and
also danced the knife up. The bride and groom had cake and then kneeled
down to serve cake to both sets of parents. Afterwards everyone brought
forward their gifts for the couple and said a few words if they wanted
to. We ate and then commenced our 7 km journey back to Nymphande. We
were pretty wiped out and so were the villagers because the next day
most of the church didn’t show up.
