A Kenyan Wedding

Last Saturday I was privileged to participate in a Kenyan wedding. It all started because our teacher, Peter, who is also a local pastor here, asked Jacob & myself if we would be willing/available to drive the wedding party from their house to the church. Customarily the bride and her side of the wedding party get ready at a certain house and then they have a number of cars that will pick them and the family up to drive them to the church. The cars are all decorated with ribbon and some with flowers and they drive in a slow fashion with their e-lights on letting others know that we are all a part of this wedding procession.




So, as it turns out, our car was chosen to be the bearer of the bride (and 9 other people - mostly kids though). So on Saturday morning, after our guard had finished giving the car a thorough cleaning,(that was such a blessing) Pastor Peter showed up with the best man and another friend of the bride to decorate all the cars at our place (a total of 4). The Korean family who is learning English first and then Kiswahili came to experience a Kenyan wedding with their whole family. Everyone was supposed to arrive at 9:30 but as is common here in Kenya the wedding people came at 10:30. As you can see in the pictures, our car was beautifully decorated, it's very common to use ribbion on all of the cars.

I was a bit nervous about the big responsibility of carrying the Bride; the most precious cargo of the wedding. We left our house at about 11am (the wedding was supposed to start at 10:30 - we were definitely all on African time) and we made our way to the bride's house (about 20-25min away). When we arrived, my driving skills where put to a test as I had to back up through a gate into a courtyard of a small house which was crammed full with about 100-150 people (at least half of which were children).




So, here I am in this "monster truck" that has a pretty big lift and big tires (which are practically necessary with the roads as they are here in Kenya) and I have to navigate through a sea of kids and people (that are difficult to see due to the height of the car) so as to get as close to the front door of this house as possible (the least amount of dirt contact for the bride). So as I'm pulling up there are group of women who are singing and dancing in a circle and their song is calling for the bride to come out.




Meanwhile the family inside was using delay tactics (such as, demanding the groom pay more dowry) to keep the bride from coming out. This is very common here in Kenya as it is a way to show the Bride's worth and value but this brother was really causing some grief and delaying the process of getting the Bride to the car. Eventually the group of singing mamas get word of what room the bride is in and rush in (no stopping them) and pick up the bride in her dress and rush her out and plop her in my car. (It was quite a sight... especially as they had asked me to be stationed in a small room just inside the house where the commotion was all happening to capture what I could on my camera.) Needless to say, as I didn't know what was going on, but was witnessing what seemed rather horrific to have this young girl scooped up and rushed out (they even dropped her on accident in the room that I was in as they were trying to get her outside past those using the delay tactics) and placed in my car.




Once she was situated, we thought we were in the clear and ready to head off to the wedding, but lo and behold, the mother of the bride turned up missing (another delay tactic we were told), so Pastor Peter and another guy went to go look for them in their car, meanwhile I was sitting in my car all ready to go with the bride, the best man (her brother I think), his wife, and 5-6 small kids crammed in the back seat (praise the Lord for a big car). We were told to wait until they returned, and so we sat there for another 10 minutes while kids are standing all around the car asking me questions... "How are you?" "Where are you from?" and a myriad of other questions that were in Kiswahili and I didn't want to take the time to figure out. Eventually we were on our way to the church, where we met up with all the guests and those who were on the grooms side.




We were all welcomed with Praise Songs pouring out of the church, and soon the same women who sang to draw the bride out of her house now sang to draw the bride out of the car. The singing continued all the way until the bride made it into the church (about 10-15min longer)... and once they were all inside it seemed to quiet down for a bit... then the songs continued. About that time (2pm) as the wedding was supposed to start around 10:30, Jacob and I hadn't eaten anything since breakfast and had been told we could leave if we needed/wanted to, which although we wanted to stay and watch the rest of the festivities, the church seemed over crowded as it was, and it being a rather hot day we opted to go home and relax (Jacob also needed to spend more time preparing for his sermon the next day, and the P3 had plans to travel into Nairobi later that afternoon as well).




So all in all, it was a very exciting time to witness, and one I won't easily forget. I learned much more about the Kenyan culture (Luhya to be specific) and was blessed that the car that God provided for us could be used to bless the people here. (One last side note, the main reason for our involvement in the first place was that the bride and groom couldn't afford the "big hoopla" that is desired for a wedding celebration, and when they had decided to do something small and simple, others rallied around them to support them and throw them a big wedding... hence their pastor, Peter, asking us to be used in the wedding caravan procession. What an honor).


- Matt for the P3