Today was the big day! It started off with Haja being an absolute cow to Sue, yelling at her and not wanting to give her a ride to the registry office, never mind that Sue has a broken ankle and it's the most important day of her life. Haja's reason was that she needed to get her hair done. Not for Sue's wedding, but for her birthday party tomorrow. She's also informed everyone that they need to bring a crate of beer to her birthday, but as we bought her the suicidal chickens we're ignoring her.
Before the wedding we made our way to Freetown with Ishmael, through the standard orange haze of construction dust. A huge argument erupted in the front row of the bus, and quickly traveled backwards gaining momentum with every seat until eventually everyone was screaming at one another. Something about the Chinese and roadworks and collusion with the Americans. We purchased some knickknacks at an enormous market filled with beads, freakish wooden masks that Ide loves (sorry if you're on that gift list), materials, and colorful bags. We were swarmed with vendors pulling our limbs in opposite directions, and Ide was in seventh heaven negotiating prices down by twenty cents.
Ishmael was very worried about attending the wedding for fear of Haja's wrath that a mere indentured servant be allowed out without her permission. It took us a while to find the registry office because it was a decrepit blue building with strange people loitering outside (no doubt they thought we were just as strange) and no signage. We trudged up eight flights of stairs and holy moly - everyone had turned up early! I think it was because if you get married in a registry they line up the weddings back to back and you lose your spot if you're late.
The JP started of with an impressive list of penalties for entering into a deceitful marriage. For instance: the punishment for bigamy is seven years hard labor; the punishment for lying about the state of your marriage is seven years hard labor; if the marriage ends you need to come back to Sierra Leone or you will not allowed to be divorced. He then ended with a severe warning to Sue that she now needed to prove herself as a good wife (no such sentiment was said to Mr Babia). "You may now kiss the bride" was taken very seriously with a full on tongue mash that must have lasted at least thirty seconds.
It was a nice short wedding, after which we proceeded to the house of one of the guests - a military commander with biceps bulging out of his sleeves and shirtless bodybuilding photos of himself framed on the walls. Haja had bowed out to go and get her hair done - of course leaving Jackie with Ishmael - but not before having the temerity to ask us to bring a plate of food home for her. They served chicken, a hunk of goat, beef kebabs, and spicy yellow rice with Fanta and water.
Mr Babia was asked to give a brief recap of how his and Sue's relationship came about. He began with a description of how the mother of his children had left him for another man, and then abandoned her two children at the border for him to collect, and how it had been difficult raising them on his own. He moved on to say that his children had not been able to say the word Mama in five years, but that when he saw Sue and the love she held for the children in her classroom he knew that she was special. In fact, he said, he knew that she was the one when Mr Mike called him to say that a volunteer would be arriving from England. I.e. Before he had even met her.
Sue also gave a short speech. Mr Babia had text stalked her for some time (and was admonished at the time by Mr Mike for doing so), but what turned the tide for her was a text he sent her on a day that she was off work, saying that he was lonely without her. Reflecting, she realized that she too was very lonely - and had been for a long, long time - since her divorce thirty years ago. This brought a tear to my eye. Only about ten of us were there and the conversation was a little stilted. The air space was filled with loud Caribbean style songs about God and a lot of prayers. And would you believe it, someone actually cheered "Clap for Jesus!".
