Wedding Day
on J and M in Assosa (Ethiopia), 20/Jan/2008 09:56, 34 days ago
We started this week by attending a wedding of a sister of one of our colleagues at the Management Institute. It seems that everyone is asked to a wedding no matter how tenuous your link to the bride.The bride’s father is a local merchant and you could see the place was full of wealthy people – certainly the women were the fattest I have encountered in the town. We have obviously been mixing with the poor.We were met by one of our colleagues who agreed to escort us through the day. The invitation was for12 noonbut he thought it was best if we met at 12 45. So we duly turned out in our best clothes– Jeremy even wore a tie in honour of the event. Then you pay a type of entrance fee in lieu of a wedding present. After hand washing we were invited to eat either raw or cooked meat accompanied by mustard, ber beri sauce and a tablespoon of salt and home made drinks either alcoholic or non alcoholic. Their compound had been covered in a tarpaulin and seats and forms placed in rows. Once you had eaten you seemed to leave and go home. We just sat on as we had been invited to see the ceremony. In total I reckon that over 1000 people must have been fed throughout the afternoon. After about a hour the bridegroom and his supporters arrived and in true tradition his way was barred by the women but the groom and his supporters soon got in and there was dancing and cheering but then he had to fight his way into the actual house when he brought out the bride in white who was beautifully decorated on her face, arms and front. She was accompanied by 2 flower girls and 4 bridesmaids one of whom was our colleague. The bridal party then ate, exchanged rings and cut the cake and at4 pmthe bride and groom left in a decorated car (only about 2 cars in Assosa– this must have come specially from Addis) and the rest of the party in trucks and a minibus. They had photos taken and returned to the groom’s parents house. Later Mulatu was able to tell us that the groom is his Maths teacher and the bestmen are all teachers!It was a good end to our stay and will be interesting to compare it with the western style wedding we are due to attend in May. I think if we start eating with our fingers at that there will be a few comments and I can imagine I will not be sitting thinking how hot it is!We have had a busy week as of course everything happens at once. Steven is to start some IT training at the MI at long last– we have been trying to arrange it for some time. At the same time we are handing over some of our VSO responsibilities to other volunteers, plus getting the house sorted for a fresh, keen, young couple fromBristol.Also ensuring, or at least trying to ensure, that Mulatu and Martha both have some sustainability in their jobs.The greatest surprise of the week was on Friday night about9pmwhen it rained heavily for about 20 minutes. This was unexpected as it has not rained in the dry season in our experience. The new volunteers have been here for over 3 months and this was their first rain.You will know from last year that this weekend is Timkat where Ethiopian Orthodox Christians renew their baptism vows to commemorate John the Baptism baptising Jesus. It is an important and moving occasion and lasts for 3 days in total.Saturday night we were invited to our fellow volunteer, Robert who is Kenyan. He has been hiding his cooking talents until now as we had a wonderful meal cooked totally by him. It consisted of very tasty cabbage, rice, lentils and potatoes in a tomato sauce plus salads of tomato and onion and tomato and lettuce. It was accompanied by chapatti type bread and omelette and finished with orange and banana.