This afternoon we attended the
traditional wedding of Papa’s daughter Emanuelle and Delfort at his sister’s
house. What a blessed event to share
in! I would guess that almost 200 were
in attendance. Though a mixture of
French and Lingala were spoken, we could still follow… and what an event it
was! The ceremony consisted of acting
out a number of traditions, with two dueling emcees (one representing each side
of the family) hamming up village traditions.
First, a “taxi” was called (one of the girls pretending to be a car) to
go fetch the bride—with all sorts of hijinks about police delays, getting the
wrong person, needing extra money, etc.
When she arrives, she “searches” for her husband, hidden in the
crowd. Then, about four or five rounds
of gifts are brought forth, dowry and “thanks”, which consisted of cases of
soda and other beverages, and ending with all sorts of housewares and food and
animals. After this was completed,
Emanuelle brought Papa a beverage representative of her fiance’s village (Fanta
grenadine…. Clearly not accurate!). She
said a small monologue, offering it to her father for him to drink with the
implication being that if he trusted enough to drink what she brought, he
acceded to the marriage; he did. What a
joyful time it was! And I even got to
see my dear sister, Mama Chantal, again!!!
Truly, my heart was bursting with joy--- what a close friend she became
after our 2011 “roadtrip” portion.
One last bit that I had wanted to mention was the delight which shines
forth during all of the kids activities that Matthew has arranged. They love being a part of acting out God’s
word, doing crafts, and playing with balloons and the parachute. Matthew was so good as to “give” his “Making
Melodies” song to Papa to lead, who then translated it into Lingala. How wonderfully it was received by all the
kids and the parishioners to see the president of the national church leading
them in silliness, showing that he is a humble servant, willing to be low.
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