Thursday, May 12, 2016

They Shall Go Forth With Singing

Whenever Awi women get the chance to celebrate, I love to see it. Awi culture has largely homogenized into Amhara but the umbrella dance at weddings is an Awi tradition.

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A few shots from another wedding, to show a bit more of what is happening.

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This little girl came in on her sister’s back.  She was three and drinking just boiled coffee.

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Jon was the only one who knew how to tie a western tie, so he helped the groom.

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After we had eaten two meals at this house, the groom gave us 4 Cokes and opened everyone. We were the only ones to receive soda and it didn’t matter how much we protested.  They wanted to bless our family and they know we don’t often drink their homemade drinks because it really hurts our stomachs. It’s a rare day when the girls get an entire bottle of soda as if they drink soda, they usually share. They couldn’t drink it. Jon was busy with other things, so I drank about 2.5, this was after coffee.

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When Jon asked this man, serving the tela (homemade alcoholic brew) if he wanted his picture taken, he stopped and posed like this.  Cracks me up everytime someone poses. :)

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An aunt hauls the tea in the large clay pot.  Woman who come to the wedding come walking in with these pots, full, on their backs.

They were expecting to feed 500 people in the afternoon.

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The groom and his parents.

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The wedding processions is starting.

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Wedding party. This group also involved a women, a first cousin to the groom. 

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These two friends, both priests in the Ethiopian Orthodox church, helped the girls as Jon had to leave to bring the van and I was taking pictures. They even carried them across a river.

About five minutes after this event and about 4 hours into the party, there was a crush of kids, standing around. The girls were standing by me and because we didn’t know what was coming, a groomsmen through about 10 candies into the crowd of kids. They rushed forward and knocked the girls over like dominoes.  We recovered but it was the end of our wedding experience for the day. J was so sad to not see the bride though! :)

 

Side note, last time I’ll mention it. :) One last chance to buy Usborne on the my show. :) It’s closing in a few days. https://d4887.myubam.com/

2 comments:

Teresa said...

Great wedding posts. You do a good job with picture story telling for us.

Shari said...

I feel as if I recognize the groom. I'm thinking we went to his parent's home when we were there. I'm thinking I also remember his name and without giving it away, it starts with an "F". Thanks for sharing all these wedding posts. I find it fascinating!