29 Jun - My amazing wedding adventure!
I recently had one of the biggest "this is why I joined Peace Corps" adventures of my service. A few weeks ago, my "mama" (the mother in my concession where I stay) started telling me about a wedding that was coming up. In my area, weddings are a lot different from what we're used to in the states. The ceremony is brief, between the men of the families getting married, and the bride and groom aren't really involved. The biggest part of the wedding is when the groom's family goes to the bride's house, during the night, and collects her to bring to her new house, along with her dowry. The dowry, a huge collection of household items such as pots and mats and bowls and fabric, is then divided up between the members of the groom's family the next day. In the case of this wedding, the groom was from my family. So the morning of the wedding, the courtyard in front of my house was already busy with women making big pots of food...