A Senegalese Wedding!

Yesterday, my older brother Bamba got married! My mom and the other women in the neighborhood and my extended family have been busy planning since before I arrived, but the last week was crazy. Every night, there were large groups of women sitting around with notebooks making lists and planning out the day's events. Senegalese weddings are nothing like American weddings, and it took a really long time for me to grasp what was going on (especially since most of the festivities occurred in Wolof and I can only greet people...).

In the days leading up to the wedding I was especially confused. No one in my family, besides the maids, really mentioned the fact that a wedding would be taking place at my house on Sunday. I talked to some of my friends in the program, two of which had been to a wedding the first weekend, and got some idea of what would happen and hoped for the best. I didn't have anything to wear and I had no idea what was expected of me, but I figured it would all work itself out.

The morning of the wedding, I slept in (meaning I got out of bed at 8:45 am), took a shower, and went upstairs to greet all of the women who had been in my house for the last week. I sat down in the living room and was immediately given the job of helping to prepare wedding favors. The favors were bags of delicious fried pastries! We had to tie ribbons around a couple hundred of these bags, so this is how a spent most of the morning. Eventually, my mom came upstairs with another task for me.

My aunt, who is my mom's older sister, is disabled and confined to a wheelchair. Because my bedroom is on the first floor, she would be using it for the day since she spends most of her time lying down. So, I cleaned up my room and moved all of my things into the closet so that she would be comfortable. That's when I finally asked my mom what I was supposed to wear that afternoon and she told me I would be borrowing some of my sister, Fanta's, clothes.

In Senegal, there is no wedding ceremony. It is, essentially, just a big party with lots of food and singing. In the early afternoon, all the men left to go to the mosque. The women all stayed and ate and sang. There were well over 100 women at the house. The most interesting, and confusing, part of the wedding were the Griotts. Griotts sole purpose at a wedding or party is to provide "atmosphere" is the words of Ousmane, one of my friends here. They sing, play drums, dance, and generally liven up the party. Then, they demand money from people. It's not like normal beggars who ask a couple times and then move on. Griotts will hand you their scarf or drum and then stand there saying "Give me money!" Eventually, they will move on, but it takes a lot of work. However, they definitely made the party fun.

It was also strange to me that weddings here seem much less about the bride and groom and more about the family. First, there are two separate parties. One takes place at the groom's house and the other at the bride's. I didn't actually see the bride until about 11:30 pm last night because she had been at the party at her house. While Bamba was present and taking photos, most of the talk was focused around his mother and family.

Another interesting part of Senegalese weddings is the bride-price negotiation. Once the night started winding down a little, everyone gathered around the women of the groom's family so that they could negotiate a dowry of money, fabric, and other gifts. It's bizarre to see this tradition in action in this day and age, but bride-prices are a very real thing here.

The wedding was absolutely exhausting. By 11:00 I was totally ready for bed, but there were people hanging out in my room. At 12:30, my other brother Baba finally kicked everyone out of my room so that I could go to bed. However, the party was still going on and didn't get much sleep at all. However, it was very fun and definitely worth it. I really felt like part of the family yesterday. Once I had changed into my Senegalese clothes, Bamba and Baba both told me how beautiful I looked. Bamba included me in photos and I was really included in most of the activities of the night.

Oh! For Bill: There was SO MUCH food at the wedding. We spent all day eating. Since I've arrived in Senegal I have had to completely give up vegetarianism, as it isn't really possible here. Ceebujen (literally fish and rice) is the national dish of Senegal and it is absolutely delicious. The rice has all kinds of spices that I cannot identify, and the fish is great. It usually also contains casaba, this green tomato thing, and carrot. We eat it almost every day and I don't think I could ever get sick of it. I really want Faatu to teach me how to cook it! We also ate couscous with beef and onion sauce (which is equally delicious) and we drank lots of different fruit juices. The cans of fruit juice here have actual pieces of fruit in them! Mmm. There isn't much variety in food here, but it doesn't matter because it is all amazing.

Photos will follow tomorrow!