kids and wedding

I went for a walk today just to get out of the compound. The guys were gone in anthony’s truck getting lumber…for 3 hours (actually 8 by the time they came back). All along the road there are houses and gardens and villages. And in everyone of those, there are kids. Little kids just in shirts. Older kids carrying babies. Groups of kids in school uniforms. More kids in clothes of indeterminant color. Snotty-nose kids. Even one albino child led by an older sibling. But they all had one thing in common – “hi mzungu!” “bye bye mzungu!” I walked along feeling very popular. Just walk along, wave at the children, say hi, say bye. When I turned around to walk back home, a group of kids in school uniforms stood there watching me. So I walked over and shook there hands. That was just the coolest thing to these kids. They each shook my hand, doing a little curtsy, and then ran a few feet away to look at me with a big grin. So I walked away and became aware I had an entourage. 2 kids holding my hands, and 3 following closely; all grinning. Now all the kids we passed wore very envious looks instead of grins. One group of kids also started following, making the entourage more of a parade. At the village I called it off by turning down another road… to a school. There are a lot of kids around here.

I ask Maureen why the kids always yell mzungu. (btw, the plural of mzungu is wzungu). She told me its cuz these children know that mzungus love children more than black adults normally do, often more than their own mothers do. She said the adults often expect the kids to know what to do without first teaching them. That’s sad. Those children are looking for love when they yell to get my attention.

We went to a wedding last week and I can tell you that weddings are not quiet affairs here. This wedding looked and acted much like our American weddings. Well, mostly. The first clue of differences came in an ear-splitting screech; “aiyaiyaiyeeeee” or something like that. Those continued throughout the music. As the bride and groom walked down the aisle to the altar, several related women stepped out of the pews and proceeded to dance in front of the couple while screeching. I think the screeching is wishing good luck or something cuz the bride and groom seemed to welcome it. A worship team from the church supplied the music, standing upstage and dancing in their casual clothes. The wedding party was decked out, right down to the little ring-bearer practically pulling a little girl down the aisle. Most of the women wore traditional dresses with the spiky sleeves. I have to say, our patch of wzungu definitely stood out in our nice western clothes. After every step of the wedding process, the screeches would start up again. After the actual ceremony and the couple had hugged, not kissed, everyone went up and congratulated them and gave them money. and everyone danced and screeched. Not a quiet affair at all. we did dance with the others a bit. Not Kevin of course, he doesn’t dance.

We went to the reception, which started about 3 hours after the wedding ended. Ugandan food, lots of soda, excellent cake, and lots of Ugandan dancing. I learned that this was a cross-kingdom marriage with people from several parts of Uganda in attendance. They had cheesy American love songs playing while people waited. And 2 people playing MC who were hilarious, especially when they talked about the toilets – “the place of convenience so your bladders don’t have to burst”. All in all it was a fun experience. Different, yet not.