Wedding or No?

Saturday I went to a wedding party. I was invited by my good friend Martha (she's in the pic at the right). Her sister is getting married and she was able to invite a couple of friends. So I got to go. It was great especially because I think Martha is the greatest! She was the first girl I met at the church I attend and then one day Laura Lee had invited her over for lunch and I found out later that Martha told LL not to tell me she was coming because she wanted to surprise me. I felt very loved by this and welcomed here. So I was invited to this wedding party. And well basically it's kind of like a reception but it's before the wedding, which actually takes place this coming Saturday. Lots of funny things happened while I was there so I get to tell you all about them. First off to the left was my date. Yup, I had a date...oh wait I can't do that here. If you couldn't tell that's Whitney, she was my date. So don't worry everyone, I'm not breaking the no date policy. Basically we arrived and sat down at a table and got a bottle of water. Then we moved to another table because Martha's brother reserved us a table, now I'm not exactly sure if it was her biological brother or a cousin, but everyone here is a brother or sister. When we got there, I think we were asked like three times if we wanted something to drink or not and finally we gave in and said ok we'll have a Coke too. So we had a Coke and a water. Then they came back and asked if we wanted more and by this time we were just tired of everyone asking if we wanted something to drink so we just agreed. I think we ended up with about 6 drinks on our table before we even got to the food...so there were a lot of potty breaks. I guess a quick description of the party would be long. But the long description would be that we got there and found out later that the groom's side of the family was late. So there was some dancing before they got there, which I was out there doing. Then they finally got there and a representative of the groom family went and sat on the ground in front of the bride's family and they had a conversation. From what I got there was a lot of explanation and apologizing for being late, but that's about it. Then the bride came in and she had a friend with her (she stayed by her side the whole night) and there were children dancing alongside of her to bring her in. Then there were introductions of each family and speeches and all kinds of things. Then we got to eat, which I enjoyed. And then there was a presentation of gifts. If you know nothing about African culture then know this, with everything there is a presentation and most of the time it's done with dancing. So the gifts were brought in groups. For example, a group of people from the bank she works for brought a gift. So they would dance up the sidewalk (we were outside the whole night) and put the gift on a table and then hug the bride and go off to the side and dance some more. Then another group would come and present the gift and so on. Then the band came back and played some more and there was more dancing. What I forgot to include was that in between introductions and dinner, the band came and played songs which we all know. First there was Backstreet Boys to which Whitney and I looked at each other and giggled a little. But the lady that was sitting next to us, who was probably in her 40s, knew the Backstreet Boys. So she said to us "Backstreet" (insert British/Tanzanian accent here) and we said yes, then she said "you like?" to which I responded "it's interesting that they are playing Backstreet Boys". I had no idea what else to say...a bit of a loaded question if you ask me. Can you really respond with a lie of yes I like the Backstreet Boys...I don't think so and I couldn't break her heart and say that I didn't. Then she proceeded to sing along. Then they played a little Shania Twain and then to top it off "Sexual Healing". I found out later that they pretty much play that song at all the parties. Other funny incident was Whitney's bathroom experience. She went off to the port-a-potty by herself this time and came back probably 15 minutes later. That's when I found out she got locked in. Poor girl, good thing they didn't smell very bad. She didn't know what to do. As you know she hasn't been here very long so she doesn't know much Swahili so she couldn't really yell for help. She said all she could do was say hello? and shake the door to try to get it open. She was finally able to get out to a mass of people looking at her. To which she said "Asante" or "Thank you" and left. What's really funny is our friend Martha asked before she left if she needed someone to go with her and Whit said no I'll be fine. Haha...guess you should always accept help when it is offered. After all of these crazy things happening, you would think that that was it. Well it wasn't. By the time the band came back and played it was already 12:15 am and we were exhausted from a very busy day. We missed the actual send off of the bride (which we heard today that didn't happen until 3 am, so I'm glad we left) but oh well...sleep was calling and we couldn't ignore it any longer. So we started driving off to a horrible noise that our car was making. Now mind you we have a car, yes, but it's years old (I'm a jgirl and well we get the runt of the litter). It kept sounding like something had lodged in our tire and it would dislodge and then lodge again...it was very disturbing, but it did keep me awake on the drive home. Then to top all of this off, I just missed my turn to get out of Centre City and right at the intersection there is a sign to tell you it's a one way road and do not enter. So I turned around 2 seconds after I passed the sign and all these officers came out of the woodwork. I think there were about 5 of them. One came and we did all our greetings and then he started spouting off things in Swahili to which I replied I only know a little so another came and talked to me in English. This is what he said (remember to use a British/Tanzanian accent) "You made a mistake. You made a mistake. You know what you did is wrong. You know what happens when you make a mistake." To which I responded in a like British/Tanzanian accent, "Yes I know I made a mistake, I just saw the sign and I just missed my turn. I'm turning around. I'm turning around. I know what happens when I make mistake but I'm turning around." Surprisingly he let me go without too much hassle. You know what happens when you make a mistake? You either have to pay a bribe or be taken down to the police station and well the police don't have cars around here so they hop in with you which I don't feel comfortable with so I'm very thankful that he let me go. Prayer is amazing. So that was my crazy Saturday night...anyone else have something similar take place?

So these pics: top left, the women dancing, right, the bride's family table, then the representative from the groom's family sitting before the bride's family explaining why they were late and apologizing, then there is the schedule of events (funny to have a schedule in Africa, that was kind of thrown out the window), then more dancing (yup that's me, the white girl, can't really see me because of the shadows but I'm on the left in a black dress), then more dancing, and then the kids dancing the bride in.