This month John and I will celebrate our 9th wedding anniversary. Thinking back to my wedding, I might have changed a few decorations or simple event items, but all in all with the help of friends, family, and different businesses it all went very well. If I had to plan or put on a wedding here though I would not know what to do.
Last Friday a local friend invited me to participate in the preparations for a neighborhood wedding. We have attended countless wedding in this country, but this was the first time I got to see first hand the preparations that go into the event. The wedding took place on Saturday, but preparations began the preceding Thursday. Friday morning about 8:30am my friend picked me up. I was told to bring a knife, but nothing else. I dressed in jeans and a t-shirt, but my friend was wearing pants, long sleeves and a head coving. This was noteworthy as my friend, who sells fried bananas on the side of the road daily, usually just wears shorts, a t-shirt, and no head covering. Head coverings are often worn when dressing up to go out, so I wondered if I was a little too dressed down.
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| Living room at the bride's parent's house. |
Upon arriving to the bride's parent's house, we were told to first have tea and cake. The living room was already decorated for the wedding. There were at least 10 plates of various pastries provided specifically for those helping.
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| Decorations The stage is for the bride and groom. |
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| Getting Started |
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| Woven Palm Frons To be filled with rice, then cooked in a large pot of water |
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| On the Floor All work, chopping, slicing, mixing, etc., was done on the floor. In the back ground are clean dishes for that day's lunch and the weekend's events. |
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| Counter Space The floor definitely provided more work space than all of the counter space in the kitchen, but it is still challenging for my clean and healthy oriented self. |
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| The Men's Work To prepare for the wedding, it was the men's job to cook the rice and the water (still not sure what the water was for, maybe just making it potable). I have seen men help with the grilling of fish and there are various food stalls that have men as cooks. But in general in this culture, men DO NOT help in household kitchens. |
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| Everything from Scratch We took the skins off of peanuts, then crushed them with a mortar and pestle. This was for our folded pancake pastry. |
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| My hand after taking skins off peanuts. Hands were usually just wiped off on a cloth or rinsed off in a bowl of water. I rinsed mine a couple times in running water, but soap was no where to be found. |
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| Washing Dishes These ladies served all morning washing dishes... on the floor too! The one water faucet they used is blue and green on the far right towards the top of the brick wall. |
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| Cooking We cooked our pastry on the left while another lady fried tempe on the right, again just for our lunch. We started cooking standing up, but not long afterwards we moved the two burner stove to...THE FLOOR, so we could all sit. I admit it was much more comfortable. |
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| On the Porch These women sat on the porch slicing, chopping, and prepping food. |
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| Cooking Chicken At least 100 chickens were bought for the wedding. All of which came dead and de-feathered, but whole. |
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| A Neighbor and I We were waiting to make a dessert with the brown balls made from palm sugar and coconut, to the left. We needed coconut milk which had not yet been made: pressed out from freshly grated coconut. |
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| Cooking more Chicken |
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| A Large Mortar and Pestle My friend, who invited me, pounding grated cassava into a fine powder. |
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| Mixing spices into chopped, deboned chicken. |
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| Chicken to be skewered. After seasoning the chicken, it was divided among trays so a large group of us could put four pieces on each skewer. |
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| Skewered Chicken This was the first thing I helped with that was actually for the wedding. |
I left the preparation party about 1:30pm and did not return, though my friend and many neighbors did.
Saturday the four of us attended the wedding event at mid-day. It was in our complex so it made for a short walk. It also made for a very loud day as music was played during the event at mid-day, then again at the 'night reception' until about 12:30am. The funniest thing was I never say the skewered chicken on the buffet line, maybe it wasn't for the main event after all, ha!
