Wedding Bells

No, not mine! Invited to my first Rwandese wedding this afternoon.  Had to get 'suited and booted' in temperatures of around 80 degrees F - sorry to rub it in as I know the weather is not great at home but we are into the hot, dry season here.

For those of you who have been to Rwanda, and know Bertha, her brother Alphonse was marrying Sylvia. Today was the formal wedding ceremony, in the cathedral, where the bride wore white and the groom wore a suit with very long sleeves!  

Sylvia

Bride, groom, friends & family

Great hat!

Some great shirts and ties on display

Lovely 'old' faces!

A musungu gatecrasher!

The reception, in a local hotel in town, was not really what we have in the UK.  All the guests sit in rows, facing the bride and groom who are on a raised stage in the middle of the room with family and VIP's seated on tables at the front. I found myself on the VIP table, I think as I was with Bishop Nathan's wife, Esther and her son Joshua and they did treat me as guest of honour even though the bride and groom probably had no idea who this musungu was. Couldn't leave without being asked to make a speech saying who I was - getting used to this now as the Rwandans do like their visitors to say something.

Lots of speeches, cake cutting, presentation of gifts and toasting the bride and groom in Fanta!

The wedding cakes with bananas, tree tomatoes & passion fruit

I have been interested to see if time goes any slower being here but finding the weeks going quickly as they do at home.  Now into a heavy workload, finding myself walking to my office, at the guesthouse, deep in thought about the day ahead and have to remind myself I am walking past some stunning scenery so often just stop and look at the lake and the views across to the DRC. I think people are getting used to the musungu walking to and from work and they still laugh when I greet them in Kinyarwandan.  I'm starting myself now to refer to white people as musungus and even have to stop myself, if I see one, from shouting out "musungu!".

My work remit seems to be growing by the day - on Wednesday, I started the day looking around Murangi Farm, owned by the Diocese, hoping Bishop Nathan wasn't going to ask me to get involved with the management of it as smelly pigs and pregnant cows aren't really my thing!  It was then back to the guesthouse for a meeting about a Craft Shop (more my thing!) we are going to open up, then a meeting about a savings and credit scheme that is training people to save small amounts of money, then I had to write job descriptions for all the staff and then a meeting with Bishop Nathan to discuss the business plan for the guesthouse so certainly a day of variety!

I'm learning a lot about myself in that I like order, structure, planning, clarity, organisation so you can probably get I am finding it a bit of challenge!  I've also learnt not to keep the Blue Band in the fridge as it comes out rock hard and it's OK to leave it in the cupboard!

Modeste, the security guard, continues to do my washing for me but I am finding that some of my large polo shirts are coming back extra-large and with strange shapes in the shoulders where he has hung them on some quirky hangers!  However, it's lovely leaving a pile of dirty washing out in the morning and coming home to find them all clean and ironed.  I'm now on the look out for someone who can do a bit of shopping and cooking for me so I'll be well looked after.

P.S. Sorry blog is so long with images but can't get it to format so I can get them next to one another but will work on it.  Thought you'd like to see the images anyway