Daima's wedding

Our eight days in Tungamalenga last month were so jam packed, we still have untold stories.  Here's the day we arrived in Tungamalenga, just in time for the wedding of Daima and Leu.

 

 

 

The wedding processional had just begun as we pulled up to the church in our vehicle piled high with luggage and bikes.  One choir led the way, then came the bridal couple and attendants (above), then the pastor and worship leaders.

 

Another choir brings up the rear.

 

Tungamalenga is Daima's home village.  He now lives in Kihesa, a "suburb" of Iringa, and attends the Kihesa Lutheran Church.  Daima and Leu both sing in the kwaya (choir) there, and so the entire Kihesa choir came out to Tungamalenga to sing at the wedding.  They brought a sound system and technician, electronic keyboard, and some fancy dance moves along with the voices.

 

One fun fact about Tanzanian wedding services -- the bride and groom and attendants sit in chairs of honor at the front. Nice way to avoid having someone faint from heat or stress.

 

 

Tungamalenga's large hexagonal church was packed for the service -- every seat taken and children standing in the aisles.  The church was decorated beautifully, with fabric from floor to ceiling behind the altar and streamers hung diagonally across the room.  During the processional offering (above) the congregation members congratulated the bride and groom.

 

 

The reception was held down the road at what was formerly a local tourist attraction, the Snake Park.  A lovely tent protected the bridal party and family from the blazing sun, and we were told 500 chairs were set up for the party.  We didn't see a single empty seat -- in fact, arriving late, our hosts moved a few people out of prime front row seats so that we would have a great view of all that went on.  They said it was the biggest wedding the town had ever seen.

 

There was an MC (above left, with his back to the camera) who kept things moving. He had a microphone and would intersperse his directions with recorded music.

 

 

Here's the sound crew.  In the center is Enock Mboso, another one of SOTV's former scholarship students.  He and Daima now work together in a carpentry business.

 

 

 

Finally, the procession of gifts.  The MC organized this too -- I'm not too clear on how, but groups of friends and family had their appointed times to come forward with their gifts.  Practical household items were the clear favorite.  We saw five gallon buckets, large and small cooking pots, towels, tools.  The gift from Shepherd of the Valley was a set of dishes and serving bowls, a teapot.

 

More gifts... it was a very long line.

 

The celebration continued with a very fine meal -- rice, stew, chicken, beef, cooked greens, fruit, and your choice of Coke, Fanta or Sprite.

 

Tired from travel, we ducked out after the meal but we heard the amplified music from our camp well into the evening.

 

A few days later, driving back to Tungamalenga from one preaching point or another, we saw another wedding party.  In contrast to the extravagant, orchestrated, well attended event of our first day, this second wedding was described to us as a "traditional" or tribal wedding.  It seemed to be a couple dozen family and friends  walking the couple to their new home.  The couple was shielded from view under a colorful kitanga.  No photos, please, they asked and we complied.

 

When we encounter these events -- the extravagant wedding, the simple wedding -- we seldom understand them completely.  It is as if our language does not contain the words to ask the right questions.  I am always hesitant to comment any more than to describe what I observed, and yet I am left with questions.

 

Later in the week, during a quiet moment with our wonderful interpreter, Rev. Msigwa, I voiced some of my questions.  Is Daima's wedding the norm now in Tanzania?  We were told that there had been a similar event in the bride's hometown days before the wedding, to send her on her way to her new married life.  Do the families pay for these celebrations? Does the married couple? and the question that is hardest for me to ask, because I know how easily I could be misinterpreting things: how can the families afford these celebrations and yet the person needed a scholarship to attend secondary school?

 

Msigwa is a wonderful interpreter, giving us not only the exchange of words from Swahili to English or English to Swahili, but he gives us the heart and soul of the communication as well.

 

He acknowledged that this wedding was larger than most.  But then he said, we have a way of organizing here for these events.  We have a committee.  (I remembered about a dozen people who had been introduced at the end of the festivities, right before the meal.)  The committee goes first to the couple's family, with pledge cards, asking what they can contribute.  Then they go to friends.  They determine a budget for the celebration and then continue with the plans.

 

So this extravagant celebration we witnessed is a community truly coming together and showing support for the couple in their new married life.  What looked like extravagance to me was really a couple who are wealthy in friends and family, wealthy in relationships.

 

What a gift.

 

May God bless Daima and Leu with a long and happy marriage.