The next day was Sunday. I went downstairs at the appointed hour to go to church. A very sick looking Mark said that he wasn't going to make it, but to have fun. Fortunately, there was one pastor there, Nelson Zulu, was from Zimbabwe and thus spoke English. (He didn't speak Portuguese... communication was interesting, because he did speak Chichewa, one of the local languages. I laughed when I read the Tower of Babel episode in Genesis. We never realize how lucky we are to have a language most people around us understand... or just what a miracle the day of Pentecost was!) Instead of regular Sunday services that day, however, there was to be a wedding. It was supposed to happen Saturday, but Saturday was Presbytery, so it didn't happen. Church started an hour late, which I thought was ominous because it could easily last 4 or 5 hours. We were waiting, however, for the bride and groom to arrive -- rather necessary components to a wedding. My goodness, you could tell when they did! There was a swelling sound from outside the church, the sound of people singing and clapping and stamping there feet. Then there appeared at the door a very stoic looking bride and groom (they never smiled once during the entire service -- which I am told is culturally the norm) surrounded by a jubilant looking throng. The bride wore a pink lace wedding dress, which more or less fit her and the groom a suit. Both of them were much older than I was expecting... the bride 33 and the groom 37, which is pretty late to be getting married in a country with such a low life expectancy. Anyway, they and the whole group danced in. The dance was very interesting... kind of two steps forward, one and three fourths steps back, with periodic stamping of the feet. It is much more controlled than our sort of dancing, and much more uniform. All their feet moved at the same time, more or less. It took them quite a while to make it the short distance to the front of the church. When they got there, there were 6 chairs, three on each side of the aisle. The front two were painted blue -- the same blue as the table/altar (come to think of it, the same blue as the cornerstone we laid the day before!) The bride and groom sat in the blue chairs, and the bridal party sat in the four behind them. I'm not really sure how the bridal party was related to the bride and groom, but I would swear one of them was the man's mother (she acted very stereotypically mother-in-lawish, like a bad Disney cartoon -- she would keep almost nagging the bride, like fixing her skirt when she sat down). Part of the ceremony were Western, parts were not. For example, Western aspects included the call for objections, the exchanging of the rings and the kiss (poor folk... the mother-in-law figure made them repeat the kiss 4 times!). Non-Western aspects included moving the two blue chairs together at one point. The neatest (and longest) part, however, was the gift-giving. For every single gift given, a group of people would start singing in their pews. Then they would get up and start slowly dancing towards the table where the bride and groom, etc. were seated. They would sing a few songs, present the gift they had, and sing and dance back to their place. Then the next group would get up and do it again. Each present could take up to 15 minutes. I should add that every person in each group would give a present, so several groups went up multiple times. Earlier in the service I had been called to present myself to the bride, groom and congregation. This was nerve-wracking, because I had to do it alone, in front of everyone, and didn't really know what to do. Usually I just watch Mark, but he wasn't there. So I shook hands, kissed cheeks, and addressed the congregation. Mineral Presbyterian, once again you have given and received greetings! Anyway, during the present time, I went up with the pastor group (who, wanting the service to go more quickly, presented their presents together). The night before I had taught the group the song "Alleluia" (the one where you just repeat it about 8 times... it was the easiest one word-wise I could come up with) in a slack moment while we were waiting for a phone call. Much to my surprise, once we had danced up to the table, we began singing that song! We also sang another song they had taught me the previous night. Then we danced back. It was fun.
      After the service concluded (it was only 4 hours) I was taken back to the hotel. Mark and I decided to go for lunch, but there was no way that we were going upstairs again! This time we really walked all over the "city" of Tete. But, of course, it was Sunday, and no place was open. (Gee, and I think New England's bad about not having stuff open on Sundays!) Defeated, we returned upstairs. I knew what I wanted, and I asked for soup, salad, and bread. The waiter left. The waiter returned. Sorry, no bread. So I had soup and a salad. They also ran out of chicken. Can you believe it? The only open restaurant in town running out of: water, bread and chicken?!?! As we would say in Portuguese, Eeeeeepa! (Like Aaaaypa.) That evening I finished off Exodus and read Leviticus, which isn't quite as interesting as Genesis.

 

 

 

 

The bride and groom enter the church

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Dancing during the gift giving at the wedding

  The interior of the church. Note the blue altar (table) and chairs.

 

 

 

  Presenting the gifts