Wedding

[rare post from Daniel moment!]

I attended the 'wedding' of the Bishop's daughter yesterday. Wedding is in inverted commas as technically they got married in Dar a week ago - Western style - and this was (in my reading of it) the traditional bit for the family and Dodoma well wishers. The Bishop is married to an Australian, and his daughter (Lisa) was marrying a Kiwi.

It was quite fun actually. I was invited as 'The MAF Manager' - receiving my invitation the day before! I think I enjoyed it more because I made the deliberate decision to go. I think I am more keen to do this kind of thing, because of the prospect of us leaving - and therefore not being able to do them in future. This was actually the first Tanzanian wedding where I have been to the reception - the one's I have been to previously I have skipped out before it got to that point. Maybe this was easier, because it was only reception!

It was quite a good example of how being a mzungu in Dodoma elevates you to a social status you would not usually have in the West (well, I wouldn't!) The marriage was attended (among other folk), by the Mayor of Dodoma; the MP for Dodoma; the General Secretary of the Anglican Church; the Vice-Chancellor of St John's University etc. Made me feel quite important :)

I made the major mistake of forgetting to take my camera, so all I had was my phone - so apologies in advance for the quality of the pictures. Oddly, the first one came out quite good quality, and the rest were a bit blurry. I will upload a bunch which will, I guess, come out above this.

The reception was in some ways quite similar to a British wedding (i.e. speeches, food, cake cutting), and in some ways not. In particular the Gogo dancers (not the kind you may be thinking of! The Wagogo are the local tribe - if the pictures come out OK, you will be able to see the traditinal dancers) and the many choirs. Also (and I don't know if this is traditional or just something the MC made up on the spot), the couple sliced up a piece of the wedding cake and then each had to feed a piece to various members of the others' family. Quite entertaining! You will (hopefully) see from the pictures that the cake had a whole bunch of extra 'cakes', which were given to various people (e.g. one to the Bride's parents, one to the Groom's parents; one to the Mayor; one to the MP!)

It was pretty traditional African timing as well. The invitation said 10.00 - and because I was going in convoy with some other people, we got there at 10.00 - which was a mistake to start with, as it didn't start until 11.00. There was then an hour of dancing/singing (a 'short introduction' as the MC called it), and then speeches, more dancing and singing, before they let us loose on the food about 14.30.

The most interseting thing I found was meeting well-educated Tanzanians. This is not a breed we come across much in normal life here, and I found it good for redressing my opinion of Tanzanians gemerally, which can tend towards the patronising/'superior'.

Anyway, off to try the pictures...