Jacqueline's Wedding

So, as I wrote about in The Cow Ceremony, I was invited to the wedding celebrations of Jacqueline, Leonard's niece, and Clement. First, on Sunday, there was the registration ceremony, then the Dot (the dowry ceremony), and on Boxing Day there was the Church service and the receptions (yes - multiple receptions).

The Church service and receptions were held in Kigali, where Clement is from and where the couple will be living. This meant another early start and an adrenaline-filled two-hour bus journey. Luckily Miri and I got to wear imikenyero again, this time in a garish shade of orange... (Libby when we got home: Is is Halloween?!)

The Church service was wonderful, and Jacqueline looked so beautiful.

(Sorry about the picture quality, my camera was doing weird things...)

The service lasted about 2 hours, and after that we went to some gardens where the wedding photos were taken.

Then we traveled to a reception venue - much like the photo taking session, we had no idea what was really going on til we got there. The reception featured a band, cake, dancing and many many many speeches (did I tell you that Rwandans LOVE speeches?!) By this time we were really hungry as we hadn't eaten since breakfast at 7.30am, and the reception went on until 6.30pm.

 (Again bad picture quality. Not my fault - some random guy picked up my camera and started taking photos for me.)

We were then taken to Jacqueline's and Clement's new house, where we had food. By this time Miri and I were on the verge of fainting, especially in the heat and the fact I had to carry and present 5kg of carrots as a gift to the new couple (I had visions of tripping over my dress and throwing carrots everywhere. So much orange!)

There were more speeches, and at last the bride started crying, so we could go home. There's a tradition in Rwanda that the guests must stay and sing until the bride cries, and then the wedding is over. I think Jacqueline may have been pretending to cry as it was so late and everyone was so tired, but either way I was glad that we could begin our journey back to Butare. The 11pm bus journey back was actually terrible as Rwandans love extremely loud music on small minibuses, and unfortunately I was right next to the only speaker - my request to turn down the music slightly was met with laughter!

Although it was such a long day, with minimal food and water, the ceremonies were really interesting and the Church service in particular was really nice. Jacqueline and Clement are a wonderful couple and I was really honoured to be a guest at all of their wedding ceremonies!