50th Wedding Anniversary Celebration in Busia

Last weekend Dennis and I took a short trip back to Busia again, this time for a big family event. Saturday was the 5oth wedding anniversary celebration of the parent in-laws of Dennis' sister Mercy. Dennis and I were expected to be there so we made the long 17 hour journey by bus across the country last Thursday night. To be married for 50 years in this country is a HUGE thing!! So they really made it a huge celebration that lasted the entire Saturday!!! It wasn't just a celebration it was another wedding. They had vehicles blowing the horns decorated with flowers to carry them and the wedding party to the church. The "bride" even had a white dress and a veil. At the church there was about a 3 or 4 hour church service with singing, dancing, praying, and renewal of wedding vows by the couple. Their 9 children were there at the altar to witness the ceremony and 100's of people in the audience participating as well. After this long service (which i didn't sit the entire way through) we waited for about an hour for a vehicle to come pick us and the other many people up to head to the reception at their village home. I thought there were lots of people at the church until we got to their home and saw the hundreds who came for the reception and FOOD! (i think they fed the entire village). This couple is pretty well off financially so they went all out with white wedding tents set up in the yard with chairs, a catered feast, a sound system with singers, and a huge cake in the middle of the yard. I sat with Dennis' mom and hung out with his sister Mercy most of the time. The afternoon was filled with entertainment and the couple even cut their cake and fed it to each other. Also during this time the couple were presented with many gifts. Each family that brought a gift had to get in front of the crowd, introduce themselves and officially and formally present the couple with their gift. This is a picture of Dennis and I and his family when we had to stand up and present our gift of a big cooking pot (sufuria) and wheelbarrow.

For this occassion Dennis' mom asked me to wear an African Kitenge (dress) so about a week before we went to this event his mom showed up at my door with some fabric she found at her house that she said she wanted to make me a dress from. Wearing this dress was an interesting story in itself. I have to say the style was nice but the fabric pattern...well...you can judge for yourself! (all my young Kenyan girlfriends had a good laugh) I chose not to the wear the head scarf however! But i went and wore the kitenge proudly which made his mother very happy. It was a lot of fun!

On Sunday Dennis and I had a blast working in the yard of his family's compound. Dennis is in the process of building a small house in his father's compound. In his particular tribal tradition if his dad passes away his mom could be inherited by another man unless the older male child (him)builds a house thereby showing there's another leader of the family. His father is getting older so Dennis is slowly building a little house so his mom is never inherited. So on Sunday we worked in the yard clearing away rocks and trash to make it look nice. The children of the village enjoyed coming to watch the mzungu (white girl) work! Was too fun!! We returned to Mombasa on Monday morning after another long bus ride very tired!!
THANK YOU TO ALL WHO HAVE BEEN PRAYING FOR ME!!!
(ok pictures are not wanting to attach again to this post so i'll try putting them in another post)