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  • Day 63

    Tanzania Day 23 - Arusha

    September 26, 2020 in Tanzania ⋅ ⛅ 27 °C

    After finishing Kilimanjaro a day early we rewarded ourselves yesterday with a day in bed doing absolutely nothing!

    Today with sore and stiff muscles still we were heading to Erastus & Mercy's wedding around 30 minutes from Arusha Town.

    We were picked up in a wedding car complete with ribbons and Gem immediately panicked as her dress was the same colour as the ribbons! After some jokes and laughter from Tony and the driver they reassured her she was fine and that the bride would be wearing white!

    We arrived at the church which had people spilling out and more people sitting outside on what seems like a churchgoers subs bench! The music and dancing had already been going for 4 hours when we arrived, we awkwardly shimmied into the church to show our face and make a donation and then promptly retreated to the safety of the subs benches outside!

    The next stop was a lake in one of the local national parks for the photos - we were watching from afar when Erastus shouts over for us to go up for our picture!!

    Afterwards was to their new house which, after a ribbon cutting ceremony at the door, was officially opened and what seemed like the entire wedding party piled in to have a look!

    Then to the back garden which had two huge marquees for each family and third smaller one at the front for the newlyweds. We were sat right at the front and almost felt bad to be, we assumed that they wanted us to be close to see everything or that it might seem better for Erastus' business life that he had westerners attending..

    Either way it was a crazy ceremony with an MC/Compere who everyone seemed to find hilarious who was dancing/singing his way through introductions. They each had a time to introduce one another's families to the whole party and afterwards had gifts brought down from various guests - some higlights were a new bed, dining room tables and chairs, a cow, two goats and numerous pots/pans! It was like a real life generation game!

    We were up and dancing a few times during certain parts of the ceremony and also had to go and accept our tables wedding cake which everyone else danced/shimmied up to collect... I tried and failed of course but raised a few laughs!

    After a buffet lunch and around 6 hours we managed to say our goodbyes and get away - but it was a great insight into an African Wedding and we were so grateful to be invited!
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