Mrh

I was lying on my bed tonight, waiting for dinner, thinking I should post something on my blog. I have a problem referring to this as "my blog", I don't know why, it just sounds weird. In fact, I laugh every time I say it. So, last weekend I went to a wedding. Technically it was two weddings, one was traditional one was the church wedding or the "white wedding" as they call it. The traditional wedding was supposed to start at 4:00, it didn't begin until oh, I don't know, 6:00? We were just hanging out outside, waiting, for something. At some point an MC type character started making announcements about money people were giving the couple; there was a runner, who would go to the seats of the guests, take the money (and their name) run it over to the MC and then the he would report the amount and the name of the donners. That lasted for a good hour, hour and half. Then we were served dinner, in our seats, still waiting for something to happen; at least that's what was going through my mind having never done this before. Somewhere along the line the groom came out, dressed in traditional Nigerian wear, and was seated facing the brides family. There was a presentation of the dowry, and then negotiation about the dowry, and then argument over the dowry. Someone told me that the brides family said that it wasn't enough, so they had to come up with more money on the spot. The dowry must be accepted by the brides family before she's allowed to come out. When the bride came out she was surrounded by her "bridesmaids" I don't quite know what to call them. They were singing and dancing around her walking her over to the groom. She sat on the groom's lap and then it was official, I think. Yeah, still trying to figure it out, it wasn't the most orderly thing I've ever been to, so it was a little difficult to figure out what exactly was going on when. Anyways, that was that. Then the next day was the church wedding, complete with bridesmaids, groomsmen, white gown, the whole nine yards. The service lasted somewhere between 2-3 hours. Then, the reception, oh my lord the reception. That didn't kick off until 2? Yeah, had to be about that time because my stomach had eaten itself by then, I remember it clearly. Something interesting about weddings here. they're more of a come one, come all sort of a thing. People invite their friends, and their friends friends and their friends family's friends and so on. It would never fly in the US, that's for sure.