Wednesday, January 25, 2012

Africa, Take Two: West Africa!


Burkina Faso is much different from Uganda, but it is still so much the same.  The people are super sweet and friendly.  Then language barrier is frustrating because I just want to sit and talk to all the sweet people that I’m meeting.  Not one person has been anything close to rude, not one.  Even when they realize that I can’t speak French, they just smile huge white smiles and nod encouragingly at me.  I love them already :).  We went to a wedding on Saturday!  My first African wedding.  It was excruciatingly long; we were only there for about six hours, but apparently it went on from ten in the morning until midnight.  People kept getting up to sing to the new couple and speak to them, and then there was a very long sermon, and that whole part of it was terribly boring because I don’t speak French and because I was sitting in the front, so I had to look like I was paying attention.  But the first part of the wedding – that was amazing!  Hands down the best wedding I’ve ever been to in my life.  There was dancing and singing and laughing and more dancing…not slow sad wedding dancing like in the U.S., but like tribal dancing!  And it was beautiful.  If ever I marry, I want the ceremony to be just like that: drums beating almost loud enough to drown out the chattering African languages, people dancing, dressed festively in bright colors, wearing head wraps that may or may not match their respective outfits.  Enormous white smiles flashing against dark faces.  Dust kicked up and swirling in the air as thick as fog, sweat running off of every brow, and dozens and dozens of tiny brown faces crowding the doorways and windows, their black eyes shiny with jolly laughter.        

1 comment:

  1. I love reading your blog. We love you and are praying for you. Eva Rainwater

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