A guy Andrew used to work with invited us to his daughter's wedding this weekend. It was great to see how Malawians get married – a lot is the same, but a lot is very different.
The ceremony was 'from' 9 at the Church (an exact replica of the Church in Medjugorie, a catholic pilgrimage site in Bosnia). There must have been a few hundred people there, with a choir singing brilliant African (obviously) songs. They bounced and echoed round the hall and at about 9.30 ish the bridal party began to enter (the bride had been there since we arrived milling around with everyone and then praying by herself in the Church for about 20 mins).
There were LOADS of bridesmaids and page boys and they each danced up the aisle ahead of the bride, who was accompanied by her mother and father. When I say danced, it was like a school disco shuffle, barely more than the transfer of weight from one foot to the other, but done with much more aplomb than your average teenager!
The ceremony lasted for 2 and a half hours and we didn't understand a single word. We guessed at the bit where they exchanged vows – only time the bride or groom spoke and it was followed by a particularly loud chorus of clapping and that tongue yelling / yodelling thing I'd associated with middle eastern women. At one stage everyone went up to shake the bride & groom's hand and we held back until someone said to us that we were v welcome to go up too – on the way up I got caught up dancing with this little wizzened old lady and later found out I must have made quite an impression as another colleague of A's, whose wife had been at the Church in the morning, later said “oh, you must have been the dancing Muzungu”(!).
There were enormous African drums outside the Church afterwards and I'm sure more dancing but we headed off. It was getting very hot and we needed some water & a coffee.
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