Wedding

Well the other day I had the privilege of being able to attend my first African wedding. One thing that someone should know about African weddings is that they are long. This is mostly because no one ever remembers the pastor showing up even an hour within the appointed starting time. This wedding wasn’t too bad, the pastor showed up two and half hours late and we were able to start. The weddings here start with a long march (they don’t march very far it just takes a while) And I really can’t call it marching it is a little like a shuffle where they take steps about three or four inches apart and step on each foot twice before they switch and put the other foot in front. Anyways it takes a long time for the wedding party to march in, then they march out, then they shuffle back in. Finally the bride comes in with the same slow shuffle, but she only goes halfway down the aisle where she is met by the groom who lifts up her veil to make sure he hasn’t gotten Leah. Then together they march to the front of the church and the rest of the wedding proceeds. One interesting thing to note is that the bride and groom are not allowed to show any emotion during the wedding so they tend to look depressed or bored throughout the ceremony. Also something else that is interesting is the sound the women make after the wedding is over; it sounds something like a mix between and Indian yell and calling for cows, quite remarkable. Then after the wedding all the girls dance in front of the couple as they walk to the reception. The whole service is replete with lots of singing, music, and dancing. I was surprised that this is the first wedding where the bride marches into “Power in the Blood”. At the reception all the guest come and present their presents to the couple and congratulate them. Then it ends with a meal of beans and rice. Which, for me, makes a very complete day.

Chameleon

Tanzania has some of the most diverse wildlife anywhere. Besides the normal lions (I have yet to see one),Elephants and zebras, it also has other small less noticable creatures such as the chameleon. When I say less noticeable, I mean that they are hard to find. The fact that they are very small (around six inches) and can change colors only makes the task that much harder. One of the missionary boy's, Tim, who is about seven years old told me that he would help me find one. So one day he and I went out in the trees looking for a chameleon. We searched and searched for over an hour but with no success, he told me that he would keep looking for one and when he found one he would save it until I could see it. Well, that was two weeks ago and still we had found no chameleon, however on Friday I went to Tims house and he was all excited, there on his hand was a small green chamelon. They are so cool. When I held him he suddenly got little dark spots all over him and then once he got stripes. Very crazy animals.
We tried and tried to get him to eat a bug so I could see his tongue out but he was not hungry but he wouldn't eat anything we placed in front of him. Right before I was going to leave Tim put the chameleon on the couch and he crawled down in the crack between the cushions. When we pulled him the most amathing had happened, instead of being lime green he had turned a dark grey almost completely black. I was impressed. So now I am a big fan of the tiny chameleon.

Rainy Season

The rainy season has just begun and I am still in the somewhere in the awe stage. The days begin with sunshine and clear skies but by lunchtime the whole sky is has turned into differing shades of grey broken only by a frequent flash of lighting. Then it rains, though not very hard, just a steady drizzle that fades away during the late afternoon. After the rains stop everything is left smelling fresh, moist, and renewed. The rains bring many changes: grass instantly turns green, shoes turn muddy, clothes don’t dry, and much more. Today, I was quite surprised to find that for some people the rainy season means more than just a change in weather, it also marks a change in what music you listen to. One of the missionaries here informed me that every time the rainy season starts, it puts her in the Christmas mood and she starts listening to Christmas music. I was quite surprised, I think mostly because I almost forgot that Christmas is only just over a month away, or that it even existed. So, in the afternoon, as I was fixing our hay-baler for the coming summer months, I sang Christmas songs and listened to the rain tin roof join in my glad melody.

I Am Getting a New Name

There was a change in my blog name because after learning some swahili I learned that nende is not really a word, however nenda is.

Medicine Man

Kibidula is a big place. It is situated on around eight square miles of land and I happen to live in the farthest corner. In light of this fact I wisely chose to get a bicycle. All was going well until the other day I took it out of my room to ride somewhere, when, lo and behold, I saw that my tire was completely flat. There was a boy from my unit standing there while I was despondently inspecting the tire. He looked at my tire and assured me in his broken English that he could fix the bike because he had “some medicine in his room for bicycles”. “This will be good,” I thought, “give the bike some Ibuprofen and all will be better, I should have thought of that myself”. While I was musing to myself, he trotted off to his room and returned with a pair of pliers, a bicycle pump, a knife, and a small piece of rubber from some other unlucky tire tube. He then proceeded to take out the tube and look for the hole. Once he found it he took the knife and rubbed it back and forth across the tire to buff it so the glue would stick. I had never before seen a kitchen knife being used to fix a tire and I sat transfixed. I tried to explain to him that we use a buffing liquid in America instead of a knife. “Oh, he said, “maybe your medicine in America is better”. I assured him that his medicine looked just fine, and so far my tire has held air good.