Blog

A blog entry from September 14, 2009

Davidson's Wedding

We enjoyed Davidson' "wedding" Sunday. Davidson is an employee of ours.  He has been married 12 years actually.

We planned on picking him and Kathryn (his wife) up at their home at 9 am to take them to the Catholic church for the wedding.  She is Catholic and he is Presbyterian.  The Catholic Deacon came to say Davidson should get the blessing of the church on their marriage because they were married in a traditional village wedding and for her to be a member of the Catholic Church she must be married in the church. So out of respect for her, they went for it.

At the end of the week he changed the time to 8:30 and then that morning he called to say they wanted him there at 8:30 so we should pick them up "before 8:30".  So we, after a wrong turn and late start, got there AT 8:30 thinking no problem for Malawi. However, they had already gone!  So, their deaf and mute son, who we communicate with in English writing, showed us the way to the village church. We got there soon after and sat until 10:15 when the service began.  By then there were at least 1000 people there.  There were probably 15-20 couples having their marriages blessed.  Took lots of pics.  Sat on hard benches. Hot, hot, hot especially in a suit!

At 12:30 it was done and we took the newly married couple to their house...except we got waylaid on the way.  There apparently were a zillion people at their home and they wanted us to stop at a family member's house for awhile.  We were taken into a brother in law's house.  Then after just a few minutes they came and took us to another brother in law's house where Davidson and Kathryn were.  There we had pop and nsima lunch (small amounts of chicken and rice too).  The church folks had provided the meal for everyone and most all was gone, so Davidson was a bit embarrassed that his important guests - us - had little to eat.  We enjoyed the time with just them and his brother in law. After 1.5 hours or so they allowed us to leave - remember, you never suggest that you are leaving; the host suggests. 

Today, Davidson said that he and Kathryn stayed another hour and then a zillion people came dancing to get them in order to bring them to their house where the chiefs (Kathryn is the daughter of a long line of chiefs of that village) had many speeches - 2 hours worth.  Then everyone left to give them some peace!  He said the chief was disappointed that we were not there, but he explained that we were very tired and needed to go.  Sorry, sorry!  I am glad he allowed us to go, but would have enjoyed a few minutes of the event - but I know it would not have been a few minutes!

Back to TOP

0 Comments

| Add a Comment

Add a Comment

(* Required field)
Remember my info above for next visit?

Comment Guidelines: Basic XHTML is allowed (a href, strong, em, code). Line breaks and paragraphs are automatically generated. Off-topic or inappropriate comments will be edited or deleted. Email addresses will never be published.