The Weekend

After making my list the observation hit me that I do not see wild animals here...I only eat them. 

Although I haven't eaten Monkey still. I think that and seeing a Wild one (and Elephant) are the least likely things for me to acomplish while still here. We'll see. Maybe it will work out!

I've been told I need more photos on here. I think that's a fair enough comment. So I'll add some this post.

Now we're going to flashback to Saturday 11 April 2009. (Yes! I remembered it's 2009!)

10am-- I went to the river with a whole bunch of people. Thelanders, Dave and Becki, Paul and Meladee, the Oliphants (visiting family), Renee, and Tim, Forrest, and Zach Kelly. It was, as usual, a fabulous time. I like the river. It's not to intense, but it is really interesting. 

This time we saw termites or driver ants or something(there was dispute, I would say termites, but they were out in the sun and I'm not an expert, so take that with a grain of salt) making their way across the river on a fallen log. Doesn't seem to exciting except that there were thousands of them! And they made this little tunnel which they were all crawling through. Then Keir and Tim knocked off a little bunch of them. The little blob that fell were confused, but the other insects quickly filled in their missing part of the highway in under 2 minutes. It was neat.

I don't have pictures of this, because I didn't take my camera, I probably should have though. But I'll steal a picture from Becki really quick on Facebook:

After the river I got all dressed up in my african ensemble and went to a wedding. There was a Pasteur getting married and I sorta tagged along with Karen and Lisa to the wedding.  

First they had the cultural wedding on Thursday in Mouila where the groom has to pay the brideprice to the bride's family. I've heard it includes things like large quantities of fabric and oil. They normally have a set price, but then during the ceremony the family jacks it up a bit and so the groom has to come prepared with more.

But Saturday it started out with the Civil cermony at the Mayor's office in Lebamba. This was pretty funny actually. The Mayor kept making all these jokes and hamming it all up.

The bride and groom had to declare if they were going to have a monogamous or polygamous marriage. They chose Monagamous and everyone cheered and clapped. And then the Mayor made certain that they really wanted a monagamous marriage. 

Then they had to declare if they were going to keep their possisions mutally or seperately. They chose to own them together. 

Once it got to the vows the Mayor made them repeat their answers more loudly and during the kiss he made sure that they turned and repeated it so that everyone could see. 

After this ceremony they made a tour de ville with the happy couple, but Karen and Lisa and I drove and dropped up Karen's guest Romain and Mamma Jackie (she's the administrator's wife) at the church for the next part and then took a quick bathroom break up at the station.

The second part of the day was the Church ceremony.

The bride and groom were danced down the aisle with lots of loud worship songs to a white decked out couch where they sat during a sermon on obstacles to a good marriage.

Bride and Groom on the couch at the front of the church. You can see the people singing to the right:

I was sitting by Karen which is great because she translated parts for me. This means that I can share some of the obstacles to a good marriage.  Now, as a disclaimer, I don't mean this in a mocking way at all, but it all struck me as a little funny because the things they brought up were either so different from what people talk about at a wedding in the US or presented so differently that it struck me as almost funny. But it was really a beautiful ceremony and I think their points were all very good. I actually liked what they said more than most of the wedding ceremonies I've been to in the US.

Anyway, some of the cautions and advise went like this:

To the groom:

Your wife is like a lamp. She'll provide light for your whole family. Don't beat her, if you beat her, that light will go out.

To the bride:

Submit to your husband (they really hammered this, which is good, but I think most people in the US are not so bold as to talk about that for 10 min at a wedding!), not because you are afraid of him or are less than him but out of love.

Oh dear...it's been to long and I can't quite pull out the rest of the advice from my brain. But it was interesting. 

The people doing the sermon were facinating. They also struck me as comical, and people laughed a lot so they were apparently funny.  But what got me was there was the guy giving the sermon in French and then the translator (I'm not positive which tribal language he was translating it into). They were both animated, waving hands and very vocally expressive. The funny part as how the translator mimiced the tones and hand gestures and everything exactly. It looked like he must've been great at driving his siblings mad with the copycat game when he was younger. 

Here's a video...because it was so amazing (things to note: The translator mimicing the pastor scratching his head at the end (It think that's what's going on anyway) Pasteur Andre(groom) taking notes--he had been instructed at the beginning to write it all down and was given a pen and paper):

I left the wedding ceremony a little bit early to go help Mamma Jackie, Lisa, Joanna, and Renee decorate the wedding cakes. Mamma Jackie had made somewhere around 13 round cakes (2 stacked to make one...) . We were whipping up icing and colors and covering those cakes fast as we coul while Joanna piped out nice little designs on them! We thought was had about 30 minutes for the lot, but Mamma Jackie explained that the Gabonese aren't particularly constrained by time restraints and schedules, so we didn't need to be worried about being "right on time" since they wouldn't be needed by then.

We got them all decorated, and then the trick was to get all of them down the big bumpy hill and over the bumpy roads to the college (school) where the reception was being held.  We only had  people and 2 cars, so 2 were driving. I managed to watch 4 cakes as we bumped along and somehow we managed to make it just fine. 

Prepping the cakes:

Lisa and I hung out at the reception but somehow we didn't end up getting seated so we didn't get any food. It wasn't a huge deal though, I enjoyed hanging out in the kitchen with the cakes and seeing how theings worked in there. It was also neat to see everyone all dressed up and see bunches of friends.

Bride and groom cutting the cakes:

The night ended at about 10 pm, when we came home and Lisa had to make a pie for the next day I had to boil eggs for Easter dinner!

Sunday (sorry this is so long! Iwill go quicker now (because I have to go watch the kids!)

Easter Morning I went to church with the Thelander's at Mandji. They had some special songs and dances. 

Then I went to Sunday school with Joanna and Becki. Beckie taught the Easter story. At first the kids were being pretty rowdy, much more than usual it seemed to me. So I was praying against any spiritual attacks right then that were trying to distract the kids and keep them from hearing the Easter story. Afterall there's the most important thing they'll ever here, why wouldn't Satan want that stopped? But things quieted down after a little bit.  

here's some boys listening with rapt attention:

Becki also taught the kids the "He is Risen!" "He is risen indeed!" declaration and response (in French: " Il est ressucité!" "Il est vraiment ressucité!"). I'm not sure I should add another video to this post. But I'm going to anyway. Here's a little video of Becki and the kids going back and forth.

Here's another picture of Anna and I. She and I met the week before easter when I was saying hi to different kids after church. She actually kept talking with me beyond "what's your name." And she remembered me this week in Sunday school when I handed her a coloring paper (I guess I do sorta stand out here though). And then she hung around me after church. She's super sweet.

After Church they had communion for Becki and Joanna, Jamie (visiting family) and me since we'd been in Sunday school. Then they had a meal that the Thelander's and I stayed for.

After that it was back to the station. I quickly (well, tried, the eggs were being difficult) made deviled eggs for the potluck. then visitors came over and then it was time for the easter egg hunt and  dinner. It was a great day. 

Sorry for the long post, but it was interesting stuff, so I thought I'd share!

Jessica