I went to Ambositra on the morning of the 25th of August. I was with Fred and three of his colleagues. We arrived at the house of Jira, the boy whose wedding we were to attend, just before dark. We had some beer on the balcony. I think that gave me a headache. Over 50 percent of the last five times I drank beer I got a headache. Around nine pm, we were invited into the kitchen. It was about the size of a closet and featured two open flames. Oh man there was a lot of smoke. But it was warm. I wasn't feeling great when dinner came around. I remembered some times in Nepal when there was an impossible amount of food in front of me. I had to concentrate to stomach every bite. Deep breaths. Its not that the food was bad: it there were even vegetables for me. But the traveling, the beer, the heat, and the foreign environment got to me. We slept in the groom's room. I woke up earlier than the rest to hear Fred snoring. I though, geez, I will never get back to sleep. But when everyone was up, the others said I was just as loud as Fred!
We took a long bus ride in to the town of the bride. It was nice because we had frequent stops and I got some mofo gasy and a finger of toaka gasy. We arrived at the civil building just before lunch. We waited outside as the entourage of the bride walked up the red, dirt street. There were three officials in the hall. Two of them had some things to say. The other supplied the couple with some papers to sign. The father of the bride said a prayer. To me, this ceremony married the couple, so I left some money in a collection box.
Next, we went to the house of the bride's parents. There was a buying ceremony, in which small amounts of money were given for one reason or another from the groom's party to that of the bride. With each addition to the pot, there were some formalities said on both parties. Fred told me that most of the time a professional takes care of this. It was a bit trying for the patience of some people. I was just trying to understand.
Lastly, we went over to a recreational center for a feast. Boy, radish, cauliflower, potato, zucchini, and I don't know what else made for a great salad. There must have been some type of mayonnaise. The next course was bread in a really rich cream. Then we had rice and zebu. I was not a vegetarian during this trip. Zebu was fine, but when I ate chicken, I didn't feel great. Anyway, everyone who attended was introduced over the microphone. The dad proved a funny emcee. The was karaoke, dancing, and cake. Then we left. It was really simple, but there is still supposed to be a marriage in the church. When we returned to the house of the groom, it seemed like the whole neighborhood was there to usher the newlyweds into their chambers.
We grabbed our stuff and headed for a hotel. We had a nice meal in a touristy spot and stayed in a great hotel.
The next day, I had tongotromby, or zebu foot soup for breakfast. It was alright, but there was not much meat, mostly just fat. I should mention that all Fred's colleagues and the couple could speak OK English. Still, mostly everyone was in Malagasy, so I was pretty quiet. Fred has a tendency to repeat things three times for emphasis, and imitating him helped me get comfortable with some easy phrases. I learned how to say 'no way' (tsy tafa voaka) and we all repeated it frequently. We met the bride and the groom one last time after breakfast before going to the taxi brousse station. While waiting, we had some spirits and some seriously salted jerky. The ride home was a bit rough for the kid next to me. We were four, but a manager insisted we squeeze another full size man in the row. So this preteen had two shoulders nearly touching in front of his face for about eight hours. We had to stop to change break pads on the way back. Hmm... When we arrived, another employee of Fred's company (ILS?), which, btw, is where the bride and the groom work, was at the taxi bus station to pick us up. We has some soup and I finally tried Nem;).
I didn't bring my camera, but maybe there will be some picture on fb soon...
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