(Picture is 12 people stuffed into a 4 person car driving to the reception.)
A wedding taking place in Malawi between two Congolese people. If you have ever wondered what that would be like, don’t worry, I will tell you.
It starts off with the bride and groom being picked up in separate cars, decorated in ribbon and bows, and honking all the way to the hall where the wedding is going to take place. (Our car was used to transport the groom, a teammate of mine) The wedding is not going to start until about two hours after it is supposed too and most Africans know that and somehow know what time they should show up, while the rest of us are there on time wondering why people aren’t there and what is going on. The wedding takes place, which I think is somewhat similar to Americans, with a preaching and vows.
Then it was time for the reception, which might have been my favorite part. We got a little snack and then waited for the bridesmaids and groomsman to dance down the aisle with the bride and groom following. Once they all got in and sat up front, we started the reception. There is this thing they do here called Perikaniperikani which can be loosely translated to “give give”. It is where you take money and shower it over the bride and groom, by throwing it at them kind of and also presenting a gift to them. Our There is Hope team got called up to do this together and it was so embarrassing for me. When going up to do this, you have to dance your way up there and then stand throwing the money over them. Oh man so embarrassing but so fun as well. Then there was more dancing by the bridesmaids and groomsman, which is what I would compare them to at an American wedding, I’m not actually sure what they were called here. About four hours later, we were fed meat, veg, and bananas along with a fanta or coke and the reception was over. Then the bride and groom got in the same car, everyone else who was a part of the wedding piled into whatever cars they could fit in and they were taken back.
All of this took about 10 hours. It was a long, fun, crazy, full of first experiences day. So now you know, a little bit, of what a wedding looks like here where I am at.