IRELAND 2014: Party Party Party

SATURDAY: International Birthday Party #2!!

Case Chimdil’s (the youth director in Burayu) daughter had her 1^st birthday, and since the Gleason’s were here when she was born, it was pretty exciting that they were there. This party was WAY more fun than the first international party, and I didn’t even speak their language! Case lives in a complex that looks like it would be government housing in America. We walked in and there were leaves covering the floor (I think that’s tradition in Ethiopia for ceremonies), printed out signs that said “Happy Birthday” in both English and Amheric (the clip art they picked out for the signs was a menorah. I chuckled). They had taped one of those banners that says “Happy Birthday” on the back wall surrounded by strung up Christmas lights (the lights kind of looked like how we decorated when we used to hang up lights for FCA meetings at Centennial). It was AWESOME. Instead of a birthday cake, Ethiopians make these MONSTER bread circles (literally, it’s a big circle made of bread. Picture a round cake, then multiply the diameter by 3. It was HUGE, and about 2 inches thick). Dad… you’d have a hard time giving up bread here. Ethiopians also eat a ton of popcorn, so there was a HUGE bowl of popcorn, intermixed with hard candies, cookies, and topped with bananas (unpeeled… literally, there were just bananas on top of the popcorn). The whole party was just JOYFUL and I felt like at one point, the entire complex was in Case’s living room (people kept walking in and Case would be like “oh yeah, these people live close to me too!” Some of them brought their babies who had been born “around the same time”, so when it came time to “cut the bread”, there were about 5 babies waiting to blow out the candle. It was REALLY cute).

- Favorite Parts:

o Seeing how open the community is to sharing their lives with each other and celebrating with one another

o Getting a tour of Case’s house. There was a living room, a bedroom for the 4 kids (literally, a room with a bed. And a little stove where it looked like they had extended the kitchen. No wall decorations, no carpet, no closet. Just a hook on the wall where Case had hung his jacket), and the master bedroom (a room with a bed, a dresser, and a couple pictures). I think the kitchen was an extension of the living room but had been separated by a curtain. It was cool because Case was SO proud of his house. It’s a lot compared to some of the people he works with, but it was still amazing seeing how much pride he had for his life/family/kids, and his excitement about getting to share it with us.

SUNDAY: Ethiopian Wedding!!

Right before I came to Ethiopia I said the ONE thing I wanted to see here was an Ethiopian wedding, and on Sunday I got my wish! As soon as the church sermon had ended, Case (the same guy who’s daughter had a birthday on Saturday) went outside and escorted the bridal party in. There was a lot of singing and dancing involved as they got to their seats – it was kind of like a conga line. The bride was dressed in traditional Afonoromo (the native language in Burayu) garb – a white dress (like a cloth dress. Not a wedding dress) decorated with trees (the Burayu sign of unity), and the groom was wearing a matching shirt/pant outfit. The couple was escorted to 2 chairs that had been covered with a white sheet so that it looked like 1 bench, and the bridal party sat behind them. The ceremony wasn’t as different as I expected, but it was still really cool to see.

Things I liked:

It was an entire church ordeal. Even though the bridal party were the only people celebrating, the wedding had kind of been incorporated into the church service. I thought it was a cool picture of what a church community looks like.
When they put the rings on each other, they held up the hand (i.e. the bride held up the grooms hand) and everyone cheered. It was cute.
It was a ceremony, but I didn’t feel like everything had to be perfect. I felt like it was more of a celebration of them getting married than a show that was being put on, and sometimes I feel like that’s what weddings have become.

Things that were different:

They signed the marriage papers at the end of the ceremony and then held up the completed document for everyone to see.
They both lit a candle together and then held up the candle stick
They didn’t kiss
The bride didn’t look very happy. Misganaw (the leader of the SVO staff) said that it was pretty typical for Ethiopian women to be raised not super stand-outish so she was just shy, but it was really hard for me to see that she was excited about getting married.
The bridal party danced around the car, led by the bride and groom, before they got in. They were dancing and singing and CELEBRATING the fact that their friends had just gotten married – it was really fun to watch. I’ll try to upload a video, but we’ll see how that one goes.
The dirt road was COVERED with confetti from the church to the main road. And I haven’t seen anyone cleaning up trash here, so it’ll probably stay there until the next big rainstorm.
The bridal party all jumped in the back of a pick-up truck and followed the newly-weds to the reception (I don’t really know what the reception was). I just liked that they fit like 20 people into the back of a pick-up truck.