Wedding

          My teaching partner invited Clint and I to her brother’s wedding.  We hired our school driver to take us.  He had to take the expats on their Saturday morning shopping trip first so we were 30 minutes late for the service.  As soon as we were spotted we were ushered to seats just behind the family even though the church was packed and people were standing in the back and at the windows looking in.  I had the feeling people were asked to get up so we could sit.  It was really awkward being ushered to the front during the service.  I wonder if they wanted everyone to see that this couple knew white people.  It is like it changes their status or something.  The sermon was long.  It sounded a lot like a pre-marital counseling session.  The couple had their traditional Nigerian service earlier in the week in the bride’s home village.  In that service they where the traditional clothing.  This was their modern service which was similar to services in the USA and the bride wore a white wedding dress.  Every big event brings photographers with their handheld, battery operated photo printers.  They take pictures of you and then try to sell them to you.  It is a bit irritating.  Most people do not have cameras here so for them it is special.  I think we had our picture taken twenty times or more.  Several people had cameras on their phones so they were using them to take our picture.

 

The wedding flowers were all silk.  The service was held at a Jehovah Witness Hall.  The lady in front of me is wearing a wig.  More than half the woman here in Nigeria wear wigs or braided hair extensions.  Rarely do you see a woman with just her own natural Afro hair.

This little sweetheart was walking up and down the center aisle.  I wish the picture had turned out better.  She was so cute.  She had fancy little braids in loops.

         My teaching partner asked us for a ride to the reception.  She went to quickly tell her family while we climbed in our van.  All of a sudden all these people started getting in the van.  There were so many they were sitting on laps.  We didn’t know what to say and our driver didn’t stop them.  When she returned I talked to her at the window and told her what happened.  The people thanked us for the ride after we arrived but they certainly didn’t ask before they started piling in.  It was like a mob scene.  We see this kind of thing every day on our way to school.  The cars and vans are packed like it is a contest to see how many people you can get inside of a Volkswagon Bug.

It was kind of funny how they piled in uninvited but it wasn't funny that there was no room left for my teaching partner.

This is a picture of a picture of us with my teaching partner and her husband and one of her children.

          At the reception venue there were hundreds of more people who had arrived just for the reception.  I only saw two gifts for the bride and groom.  The room was nicely decorated.  We have noticed that people decorate here with fabric swags more than anything else.  The chairs were all outdoor cheap plastic patio chairs.  The only reason I am describing them is because they started collapsing under people all over the room.  At our table Clint and I both fell twice and our driver fell once.  Two other people near us also fell.  We could hear it happening over and over all around the room. People would yelp and shuffle to try and grab the person falling.  Some of the chairs actually snapped legs off.  I was laughing so hard when it happened to me.  I was just sitting not leaning or anything and all of a sudden I was on the floor on my back.  Two people got up and took my arms to help me up.  I was laughing too hard to get up on my own.  I felt really red from embarrassment so I did a curtsy before I sat down again on a different chair.  Within only a couple minutes I was back on the floor again this time I almost took our table out too because I was holding onto it.  It reminded me of the story my mother has told about falling off of a stage while sitting on a chair near the edge. 

This is my teaching partner's other child.  He attends our school in the nursery class.  The staff members can have one child attend for free and the second one is 25% off.

 

I tried to download the video I took of the dancing but it didn't work and wouldn't let me delete it.

          When the bride and groom came in with their wedding party they danced to the popular music here.  There was a clown who showed up and was bothering people.  I was told he was requesting money before he would leave.  The meal was rice and goat meat, I think.  It didn't taste like beef.  We also were served barley soda.  We have learned to drink it.  The soda tastes like drinking a slice of bread.  I don’t know how else to describe it.  The bride and groom gave everyone a ceramic plate and a calendar with their picture to remember their wedding.  Our driver purchased a couple pictures taken of us.  Clint purchased one also and finally the photographers left us alone.  The clown followed us out to our van trying to get money from us.  When we got back to our compound the science teacher was outside.  He said I looked like a queen.  Several people made comments that we had nicely grown into the culture here by wearing the traditional clothing.  Our attire was definitely well received.  Clint picked up his shirt from the seamstress yesterday so he got it just in time.  The science teacher’s wife made it for him.

This is us with our driver.  He took us by his house to drop something off.  We were able to meet a couple of his seven children,

This was the irritating clown.