African Wedding

Yesterday we got invited to attend a send-off party for the daughter of one our professors.  The send-off party is a pre-wedding event where the groom's family offers the bride's family gifts and the bride's family gives away their daughter to the groom.  We hitched a ride via a chartered daladala to Mbezi Beach, about 20 minutes away from the University.  The party was at the Skyline Motel, which was a typical wedding reception building (but think Tanzanian style and a little more upscale).  They had air conditioning!!! We entered the building and everyone was dressed very formally (heels, dresses, and suits), plus there was also a lot of traditional African clothing, especially worn by the men.  The room was decorated in cream, black, and fuschia, and was quite beautiful.  They had music playing and a live camera man who was shooting the event and playing it on a projector. We sat at a table and were offered drinks by the waitress.  The ceremony began at about 8:30 when the groom's family arrived carrying gifts for the bride's family (bananas, soda, spirits, and a few other items).  There was a whole ritual in which the groom's family presented the bride's family with the gifts.  In order to accept the gifts, the bride's family had to taste the whiskey brought by the groom's family, in order to make sure the gifts were of good enough quality in order to be accepted.  After that, the men in the groom's family took turns asking the bride's family for permission for their son to marry their daughter.  Then, the bride was presented along with her maid of honor and her family.  There was a ceremony where the groom had to "discover" his bride among the women and she was revealed to him.  Her father gave her his blessing and they popped champagne to celebrate.  Then, we all got up and began to wave our hankerchiefs and dance around.  We all had glasses and were supposed to try to toast and dance with everyone in the room.  Later on, we watched a traditional song and dance performed by a woman and three men in grass skirts and traditional African wear.  After the bride presented her family and the groom's family with two tiers of her wedding cake, and proceded to cut the wedding cake, we finally got to eat!  We were so hungry! It was 11:00 pm by that time and we were famished even though we had been drinking bottomless drinks the entire time.  I had hoped that because this was a wedding reception, there would be different food than rice and chicken, but alas, we had the usual wali na kuku (rice and chicken).  There were, however, a variety of other dishes including a salad, plantains, peas, lamb, pilau, and noodles.  It tasted great! And best of all, there was cake to finish it off!  We left fairly soon after we ate, since we had class this morning at 8:30.  Classes went well today and I think I'm starting to adjust to the 8:30-4:45 school schedule.  Although, everytime I get out of class I feel like the whole day is gone!  Tomorrow is more classes, but this weekend we are going to Bagamoyo, another island off the coast of Tanzania.  I'm pretty excited!  Well, I'm going to say goodbye for now.
Erin
Swahili Word of the Day: Maji (Mah-Jhee) - Water