The weekend was interesting. We were invited to a “send-off” on Saturday evening. A “send-off” is a pre-wedding event where a female is getting married and is being “sent off” to her new family (her spouse). It is a tradition to throw a big party for her before the wedding as an official farewell. Family ties are incredibly important here so it is still a very strong tradition to “give” your daughter away in literal terms, and for the spouses family to pay for the daughter in a variety of different possible ways (depending on financial status, education, tribe, etc.). In this case, the send-off ceremony basically looks like a wedding reception: the bride-to-be wears an extravagant dress, people bring gifts to her (separate from the wedding gifts she receives), an MC narrates the whole event, and theres a large buffet. In this case, there were also lots of pictures and videos of the bride-to-be. Her husband-to-be is only visible near the end of the event where he comes to embrace her and his family brings fabric from their tribe/family to give to her as a welcoming gift from her new relatives. It is quite the extravagant event and we were told that many Tanzanians take out major loans to finance it—much like in the west. In this case (we have pictures) the bride-to-be was the daughter of one of the orthopaedic surgeons at Machame hospital and she wore a yellow gown for the event. She wore a lot of jewelry and had her hair all done up. She looked really pretty. There were 2 small things I specifically liked about the event: 1. The bride took the time to mention about 99% of people at the ceremony –mind you, this was a massive auditorium hall of probably 250 people! She literally went through just about everyone there- starting from her and his immediate family to more family, friends, and even us as the “Machame hospital” crowd! I loved that because it reminded me of when we go to weddings in North America and you always wonder who everyone is at the reception, and maybe, if everyone was introduced and singled out with a “thank you for coming” gesture, there would be more intermingling at the event. 2. There were a bunch of small single cakes on each table instead of one large cake at the front. This was great because everyone toasted to the would-be-bride by having a bite of cake simultaneously. No one had to wait in line for cake, there was enough cake for everyone, and everyone cut and handed out the mini-cakes as the bride cut up her own at the front table. I thought it was just another sweet gesture of ‘togetherness’. The buffet consisted of a multitude of traditional East African dishes, and dishes more specific to the Kilimanjaro region- banana! Banana stew, meat samosas (some Indian influences in these parts), different stewed vegetables, different types of rice, meat kebabs, and goat! The traditional ‘wedding’ meat in these part is supposed to be mountain goat—which they brought out whole, including head! Interesting! Unfortunately, I think East African cuisine is pretty tasteless, but the samosas had some flavor to them…..as did the Kilimanjaro beer …
Sunday we were invited to a “hash”—it is an activity that is a bit difficult to explain. Basically, there are few white people in this region (term= mzunga) so they like to come up with ideas of how to get together. So they came up with this ‘hash’ idea that involves food and games (not drugs !). Different people host a hash every 2 weeks—they set up a maze (its like an Amazing Race concept) with clues along the way and you follow the clues that lead back to their house where there is food and refreshment waiting. Someone wins but its mostly for fun & exercise ……& food! A Danish couple that lives just outside of Moshi hosted the event Sunday and they had a really great gathering at their nice home. There were about 50? Mzungas there, ranging from teachers who moved to the area, to medical students/interns like us, to other random volunteers- basically whoever heard about it by word of mouth. It was fun, hot, and tiring, but well worth it for some of the nice snacks at the end. Most people walked the maze (instead of jogged)………including me……….too hot to run!
Over the weekend we also finalized safari details and Kilimanjaro details. We are doing a 4 day safari to Tiringire National Park/Serengeti/and Ngorogoro crater, Friday to Monday. Then we get a day break and head off for a 6 day Mt. Kilimanjaro climb on Wednesday. There is snow on the mountain …..I have a feeling I won’t really enjoy the climb until I’m actually at the top :P Let’s see how this goes….
We have been hiking around the Machame area this week, trying to stay active before the climb. Some great views of the valley below and the mountain above…
