Crazy Day

Today (Saturday) was one of those crazy days where we tried to cram in everything that could possibly be done in a single day. We had originally planned to go to Choma for the day. Choma is a larger town about an hour away from us here at Namwianga. It has a large market for the local shoppers (still not a tourist market) and a regional art and craft museum. We usually spen a day there and had planned to keep with the tradition, but last night we were informed about a wedding that was occurring here at Namwianga this afternoon. The community was invited and we could not miss that because we had been informed that Zambian weddings were something to see.

So we headed to Choma, all crammed into Khaki Jackie and the truck the Pharmacy group has been using. We got to the Post Office in Choma by 10:00, bought stamps and mailed postcards, went to the ATM to get Kwacha (it is always a thrill to see that I have millions of Kwacha in the bank at home), then turned everyone loose in the market. The chitange man did not have a large variety, and the fabric shop had sold out of the pink African material I had wanted to buy for my sister-in-law. The lady in the heart of the market that had all the unique material was not there today, so I headed for the Spar to help get lunch for everyone. We picked up some supplies for Ba Leonard as well as lunch and headed for the museun to eat at the picnic tables. The crafts at the museum were great and the students went crazy (as usual) and probably funded many more projects with the things they bought. The director was so excited that he invited me back in after the students had left to pick a gift from the shop but we were so late for the wedding that I could not.

We raced back to Namwianga, changed into our best (embarrassing, to say the least) and walked over to the auditorium. The usher (who is also one of our watchmen, escorted Beckie, Ian, Scott and I right to the front and seated us next to the groom’s family. We stayed for three hours and it seemed to be just getting going. No cake or food had been served. There is a lot of dancing. The attendants all dance in, the bride dances in, (then the ceremony), then all dance back out, then they all dance back in. Meanwhile, the audience often got up to dance. I was exhausted, just watching. I have wonderful video but could never get it loaded. I found a link online with lots of information about Zambian wedding traditions. Go to the middle of the document to see the Zambian material with even a reference (mispelled) to Namwianga.

At 5:00 we raced back to the Hamby House where Ba Leonard had a huge meal ready for us. I included a photo just so you wouldn’t worry too much about what we were eating.