Wedding

This event happened a few weeks ago. Nancy had invited me to her youngest sister’s wedding. Nancy and her family were going to take a cockroach at 6 am on the wedding day to get there. Joseph, who was also invited, and I decided against that ridiculously early departure. We figured we would take a transport from Otho and walk there at a more humane time of day.

We got to Otho around 9:30 am. It’s about an hour walk. We were told that the wedding would begin around 11 am. However, TIA. Through some of the conversation that was around us, Joseph concluded that he should make some phone calls. We discovered that Nancy and Evans were still at their home at Sea Lodge! They hadn’t even left for their own sister’s wedding yet.

So, we decided to save our money and wait for them. The waiting took awhile and a Matatu showed up, and so we decided to use that to get to Lwanda where the wedding was being held. We got there around 11:30 or so. Nothing was going on. The stupid wedding did not start until almost 1:30 pm. Joseph and I just sat there for another two hours. Nancy and Evans didn’t arrive until almost 1 pm.

Then the place got packed. It was so crowded that the ventilation became non-existent. People had crammed themselves outside the windows, stifling any chance for air movement.

Nancy’s Dad showed up with his three wives. Then the awful, loud, boring, repetitive Luo music started up. The groomsmen, the bridesmaids, flower girls, and little usher boys, or whatever they are called, all walked in this slow gait to the rhythm of the music. They would only take a step with each measure. In addition to all the waiting prior to this march of the slowpokes, I had to now sit there and endure this soporific procession to repetitive Luo music.

During this ceremony, I was also stuck with holding a baby. The hall became so crowded that the mother decided to sit on the floor. People were squished so close together that she had little room for holding the baby in the middle of this crowd. Earlier, I had taken some pictures of the baby and the aunt, who I initially thought was the mother, for they made a very picturesque couple. It didn’t mean that I wanted to be stuck with the baby worrying the whole time whether it was going to expel some noxious fluid on me from one of its many orifices. Jeez!

As a result of this unsought-after maternal responsibility that was thrust upon me, Joseph borrowed my camera and became the resident photographer – well 1 of 4 or 5. And he had this cool responsibility shooting pictures and I was stuck there with this little kid. Thankfully, it wasn’t crying. Actually, it started but then I was spared having to console it. I quickly gave it up to the mother.

After the seemingly endless procession finally concluded, the pastor embarked on a ministerial tirade that also felt like it would last forever. It definitely went on for over an hour. Probably, the experience would not have felt so interminable had I understood even a single word. The audience laughed occasionally, and so it seemed that there was some fun to be had.

Eventually, my patience was stretched to its maximum. I had breathed nothing but body odor for four hours, listened to this uninspired music that sounds like every other Luo composition, and endured this inability to move because of this 10 pound baby sitting on me, and so I finally sent a text message to Joseph citing that I was hungry (and I was because I hadn’t eaten anything yet that whole day) and asking when would this thing end.

He and Nancy rescued me. We were first in the food line, and in the end we got lucky and hitched a ride back to Matoso with the hired car Nancy and Evans used to get to the wedding in the first place.

And that, boys and girls, was a traditional Luo Christian wedding.

For those of you who will continue to need your Africa fix, Darcie has also created a blog for their trip out here. The address is ayearinkenya.blogspot.com And you can also subscribe by e-mail.

Enjoy!