I could have danced all night
Blijf op de hoogte en volg Clara
13 December 2014 | Tanzania, Shirati
There are only three ways of partying in Shirati: going to the bar when Manchester United is playing, a wedding or a so-called send off.
Yesterday we were invited to the send off of a young woman in Shirati. A send off is a wedding like ceremony to wish a girl all the best before she leaves her home to join her future husbands family. I thought it was going to be a small intimate affair, but boy was I wrong. It takes a village to raise a child, and it takes a village to organise a send off. Almost all the prominent people in the village were part of the send off committee. Every committee member pays for a part of the ceremony and is therefore entitled to a number of guests. Fred organised the transport for the bride to be, and that’s how we got our entry tickets (that were inside a pen).
We walked into the ceremony hall at Owan Hotel, the only western looking building in Shirati. It was decked out in red, yellow and green banners and fairy lights. It could have been a “carnavals prinsenproclamatie” if it was housed in the Netherlands. On the invitation it said that the festivities would start at 6:00pm, but when we arrived at around 6:45pm we were still the first guests. Which was nice, because that way we got a great table along the isle. The rest of the guests slowly trickled in and at around 8:30pm the bridal party made their way down the isle in a synchronized dance to the tune of “I’m looking for my Johnny” (look it up, maybe it’s on Youtube, this song is played everywhere all the time)
In the front of the bridal party was a sassy young girl, doing a catwalk just like at the Miss Mai Safi Pageant. She had to inspect the hall to see if it would be suitable for the send off ceremony. Luckily she approved of everything and the party continued. The bride walked in, in a yellow and green dress and sat down on the throne in the middle of the stage. Music was blasting from every corner of the hall when the bride divided the cake and champagne between her and her future husbands family. Every committee member and family member was officially introduced, and also every table had to present their gifts in an official way. You can imagine that this took quite some time with 400 guests. I was eyeing the last three points of the send off program on the table: food, entertainment and dancing, but it would take 5 more hours before we came to that part of the ceremony. By that time I was so exhausted and deaf in my left ear that I just had to go home, for tomorrow was a normal working day.
Luckily the real wedding will be on Saturday, so I know I need to go there well rested, well fed and don’t sit so close to the speakers.
Yesterday we were invited to the send off of a young woman in Shirati. A send off is a wedding like ceremony to wish a girl all the best before she leaves her home to join her future husbands family. I thought it was going to be a small intimate affair, but boy was I wrong. It takes a village to raise a child, and it takes a village to organise a send off. Almost all the prominent people in the village were part of the send off committee. Every committee member pays for a part of the ceremony and is therefore entitled to a number of guests. Fred organised the transport for the bride to be, and that’s how we got our entry tickets (that were inside a pen).
We walked into the ceremony hall at Owan Hotel, the only western looking building in Shirati. It was decked out in red, yellow and green banners and fairy lights. It could have been a “carnavals prinsenproclamatie” if it was housed in the Netherlands. On the invitation it said that the festivities would start at 6:00pm, but when we arrived at around 6:45pm we were still the first guests. Which was nice, because that way we got a great table along the isle. The rest of the guests slowly trickled in and at around 8:30pm the bridal party made their way down the isle in a synchronized dance to the tune of “I’m looking for my Johnny” (look it up, maybe it’s on Youtube, this song is played everywhere all the time)
In the front of the bridal party was a sassy young girl, doing a catwalk just like at the Miss Mai Safi Pageant. She had to inspect the hall to see if it would be suitable for the send off ceremony. Luckily she approved of everything and the party continued. The bride walked in, in a yellow and green dress and sat down on the throne in the middle of the stage. Music was blasting from every corner of the hall when the bride divided the cake and champagne between her and her future husbands family. Every committee member and family member was officially introduced, and also every table had to present their gifts in an official way. You can imagine that this took quite some time with 400 guests. I was eyeing the last three points of the send off program on the table: food, entertainment and dancing, but it would take 5 more hours before we came to that part of the ceremony. By that time I was so exhausted and deaf in my left ear that I just had to go home, for tomorrow was a normal working day.
Luckily the real wedding will be on Saturday, so I know I need to go there well rested, well fed and don’t sit so close to the speakers.
Reageer op dit reisverslag
Je kunt nu ook Smileys gebruiken. Via de toolbar, toetsenbord of door eerst : te typen en dan een woord bijvoorbeeld :smiley
