Cameroonian weddings

So a few days ago I went to a Cameroonian wedding. It was a Catholic wedding and I went to it with another one of the volunteers here in country. It was her co-workers wedding. So, it was suppose to start at 3pm and we show up, dressed in our culturally appropriate pagne outfits and with our hair pulled back and sit down towards the middle /back of the church and just wait. Choir practice was still going on (things here rarely start on time). But by about 3:30 people were rolling in for this wedding and it began soon after. I had no idea what to expect from a Catholic Wedding in Cameroon but I was super excited to get to play "wing man" to my friend and come along. The mass/service (my Catholic terminology isn't great, sorry) was all in French and the music (which made up about 1/2 of the serivce) was in various ethinic languages of the area (like Fufulde). The singing was beautiful even though I understand none of the local dialects. I got about 1/2 the French. I was good about understanding the people who were talking when it wasn't reading from the Bible or directly part of the mass (like when the bride and groom spoke to each other or the congregation) but understanding the father who was given the mass was harder for me. People rolled into the church throughout the whole ceremony. The bride and groom walked down the aisle together followed by their parents. There was a little girl who was dressed in a white "flower girlish" dress and a little boy in a mini tux as well. The bride did wear a beautiful white wedding gown that looked like something right out of a western wedding and she wore a white hat with flowers and such on it. The dress had a train which a women carried for her and I believe there were 3 bridesmaids (well there were women in matching pagne who seemed to play some role in the wedding). The bride and groom exchanged rings and vows and kissed to seal the deal. I wasn't sure if they were going to (public affection is a big no no in Cameroon) but they did. Oh, at some point in the middle of the ceremony a crazy man wondered into the church and made a bee line for my friend and I. He then tried to talk to us in incomprehendable French and the whole time his penis was hanging out. We were trying hard not to create a scene in the middle of this wedding but a crazy man off the streets who was obviously unwell was getting angry at us in French that made no sense and his penis was hanging out in the middle of a wedding. After a few minutes (or what felt like a few minutes) a man from a few rows back came and helped him out of the church. I don't think we disturbed the church at all to be honest, phew. Oh, another funny thing, apparently the same Bible versus are popular in Cameroon. I heard the verse from 1 Cor about "love is patient, love is kind" at this wedding service. That cracked me up for some reason. About 1/2 of the congregation didn't go up to take communion so I didn't have to deal with the "do I go and take communion even though I am not Catholic" dilemma, which was nice. The church that this wedding was held in was beautiful and spottlessly clean. Honestly, I want to know how they got this giant church that clean and spider free. I surely cannot seem to accomplish that with my own house here which is much smaller. Oh, my other favorite part of the wedding was that after taking communion the bride and groom and wedding party walked out of the church from the side and then walked back down the aisle again this time carrying tons and tons of eggs. I have no idea what they were for, at first I was worried that might be their version of bird seed, but nothing came of the eggs - they just got walked down the aisle. After the bride and groom walked back down the aisle as husband and wife for the final time they took pictures together outside with the wedding party and families. I have no pictures of this wedding because while I had my camera I just didn't feel comfortable taking pictures like I was a tourist at their wedding or something. There was a photographer who was obviously the person taking pictures but other than that not many people were taking pictures so I would have felt odd doing so. After the wedding the wedding party did a tour of the city together and then we all met up at a reception at their new house. It was beautifully decorated and all took place in their outdoor porch and front yard area that was in their concession. Since it was a Catholic wedding, there was a wine bottle at each table but no plates so we were worried we wouldn't be getting dinner. But, we did get food - there was a buffet set up in their living room area. It was lovely Cameroonian food and I ate my fill. Did I mention yet that throughout this whole wedding reception there were Christmas lights in the trees behind me that played a high pitched rendition of jingle bells, we wish you a merry christmas and santa claus is coming to town over and over and over. I almost ripped them down and threw them over the fense. Luckly, they played other music about half the time and it drowned most of the obnoxious sound out. The best part of this reception was by far the gift giving. Everyone who brought a gift was instructed by the MC who narriated the whole wedding to line up single file started with the mothers of the bride and groom and a women who may have been the maid of honor. Then, the bridesmaids and bride and groom stood on the porch and while the mothers of the bride and groom brought up their gifts they danced up with their gifts (and I mean DANCED) and each of them got their own personal song chanted by the rest of us in the audience. Then, after these 2-3 special people gave their gifts and got their own personal song and dance time the audience sang one song while everyone else danced up their gifts and the people on stage started a veritible assembly line of gift passing. It was amazing to watch. Then, the bride and groom had their first dance together. It lasted literally 10 seconds. Not kidding. Then, the mother of the bride danced with the father of the groom (and vice versa) and each of those lasted another 10 seconds. After this - cake. That's right wedding cake. It had a similar frosting to the typical wedding cake in America and was fruity tasting. With cake they brought out bottles of champaigne with plastic corks for each table and we opened and drank that. There was no toasting to the bride and groom or anything like that but they did feed each other bites of cake with a fork before the cake was cut and given out to the guests. After cake, dancing began. This lasted for a while. At midnight (the reception began at 7ish) when everyone was still dancing (no I wasn't dancing but I was entertained by watching - Courtney I needed you there to make me dance!) they brought out a dead animal carcase and carved it up on the side of the dance floor and passed out trays of cut up meat to those on the dance floor and those other lame people like myself who weren't dancing. Soon after this I got taken home, thankfully (I was exhausted) and got to go right to bed. I get up really early here so that was super late for me! I am not sure that even with this long description you can understand how awesome this wedding was. Parts of it were so similar to America (they read the same typical Bible verses and feed each other cake) but other parts (like the gift exchange) were so abnormal. We even got party favors (gum wrapped in pink chafon) when we left the party! It was great fun!

Other things I have noticed here about the culture - while the country is very homophobic, men here hold hands all the time. It is really trippy because men and women don't hold hands, only men and men. Strange. Alright, well I think that is about all I have to say about the wedding and I am about to lose my internet so I will have to go for now! Keep posting comments people so I know you are all alive and doing well! Happy New Years!!

Ps... GO TROJANS in the Rose Bowl on Jan 1st against Penn State! Someone (Joey I am counting on you) please call me or text me the results of the game! Make sure I respond so you know it went through (my phone has been hating me)!!!!!!!!! GOOOOOOOOOO TROJANS!!!!!!!!!!!!