Weekend Shenanigans

It was a busy weekend. Saturday morning Bryant, Eric, and Laura left for safari for 3 days. I spent the morning working on some materials I am preparing for the team before I go and a pain and symptom management talk I am hoping to give before I go. (There is a lot to change where this is concerned. Just today in Continuing Medical Education lecture the MD who is the head of the hospital now said that narcotics were poisons and the interns should not be prescribing any meds, particularly not multiple medications when they don't know exactly what's going on. This is an absolutely ridiculous statement, particuarly given that most of our labs take >24 hrs to come back and are unreliable anyway, we have limited lab tests available, x-rays and ultrasounds are done after mid-afternoon only if they are true emergencies, and there is no CT or MRI.) Anyway. . . about noon on Saturday Mama Makule texted to see if I wanted to go to the 'Send off' party with her that night. I did, so I walked downtown and bought a small gift and some blue beaded sandals to wear with the dress I had brought from home and then climbed back up the hill and changed. The whole hospice team picked me up on the way to visit the family that got broken into. In Tanzania, when something bad happens, you are supposed to visit right away to show your support and sympathy. I think this is actually probably fairly traumatic for the person to whom the bad thing has happened, but it would have been hard to explain this to them, plus they had already bought a large bouquet of flowers. So we returned to town, had the present wrapped, did some other errands, and then paid the visit. By the time this was all done, plus we had dropped off the other team members at home we were fairly late to the send-off, but it was still and interesting experience.

A send-off is a party that is held for the bride before the wedding. It's usually on Thursday but this one was on Saturday because the wedding is taking place in a different city, so this was the main celebration for a lot of the bride's friends and family members. We arrived after the part of the evening where the bride has to find the groom who has been hidden somewhere in the room, after the cake cutting, and a couple other traditions, but in time to have some dinner - salad, rice, chicken, beef, bananas (the non-sweet, main course kind) and potatoes. The bride was dressed in a gold slim dress with beading and sequins on the bodice and there were between 10 and 20 young women aged maybe 10-30 in gold and white satin dresses. They are apparently the family members and friends of the bride and are all part of the wedding party. The bride will have a different white dress for the wedding itself. After dinner, the MC did some announcements and a prayer and then began the processions. First, the bride's family all lined up and danced into the center of the hall with presents, which were handed to some of the attendants, and then they kissed / congratulated the bride. Throughout the procession, the women in it and those in the audience yelled/sang "lelelele" in celebration. Next was a procession of friends of the bride, which I joined with my gift. Then came the family and friends of the groom - a smaller group but presumably they are mostly located in the other town where the wedding will be. Then, there was a procession of all the women. Some friends / family distributed household items (I got a blue plastic pitcher with a lid) and we danced into the hall waving the gifts in the air and deposited them in a basket in front of the bride. Finally, we returned outside and got our kitangas (brightly printed 2 meter swatches of cloth, sold here for between 5 and 10 dollars) and again processed in, this time wrapping the mother of the bride in the cloth to congratulate her on a job well done raising her daughter. (Perhaps to simulate swaddling a child?) That was the end of the processions, the last thing was to introduce all of the people who were on the Send Off committed. Mama Makule was in charge of the decorations, so she went up front with about 20 other people and was introduced. Then the bride, bridesmaids and groom processed outside and the bride and groom left in a decorated mercedes. The decorations were fabulous - again white and gold satin, with large bouquets of flowers and lots of white lights intertwined as well. There were probably 200-300 guests. I think Mama Makule said the bride's family pays for the send off while the grooms pays for the wedding. It looked like the send off would be about equal in cost to a wedding with the decorations and full meal, so it seems getting married here might be even more ridiculously expensive than getting married in America - at least proportionally. I do like the idea of getting 2 fabulous dresses though. :)

After the celebration ended, Mama Makule's husband, a doctor at the local government owned hospital came and picked us up - he had been working in his dispensary all evening. We went to the AICC club (Arusha International Conference Center) which is near the Makule's old apartment and had a beer and some nyamachoma (barbecue.) I tried cow intestines - grilled - for the first time (they told me after I had tasted them) - despite being grilled / roasted, they were still incredibly fatty. In addition to knowing they were intestines, the layer of fat that adhered to the roof of my mouth while eating them was enough for me to decide they may be a delicacy, but they're not my new favorite food. (Ironically, I really miss bacon which is also crispy and quite fatty.) But the grilled mutton and chicken was delicious and the grilled bananas served as the starch are kind of pretty much the same as fries - salty and crunchy without a lot of overwhelming flavor of their own. I got the last Castle Milk Stout (my new favorite beer) in the place and Dr. Makule had a couple Ndovu - one I haven't tried but he likes it because it is very light, so I doubt I will like it a lot. On the way home from the club (now after 11) Dr. Makule decided we should drive through town so I could see what it looked like at night. As we went past the Kibo Palace (one of the top 2 hotels here) he discovered I had never been inside, and insisted we go in for a drink on the terrace. The hotel is fancy - it is a round building around a central atrium that is probably 7-10 stories high. That's pretty high by Tanzanian standards. It's an interesting building and the terrace by the pool was certainly an enjoyable place to have a glass of wine. I got home well after 1 AM, which is the latest I've been out since getting here, and was pretty tired, but it was wonderful to have a couple local cultural experiences.

Sunday was church, followed by the Ngaramontoni market with Mat and Jane and Jane's Mom Margaret who is visiting from New Zealand, more computer work in the afternoon and dinner at Mat and Jane's. I stayed there Sunday night because I was feeling less comfortable about being at home alone (Bryant was on safari) after hearing that there had been not one but several attacks last week. Bryant is now off the Zanzibar with his girlfriend Brooke who is visiting, so I should be staying with Eric and Laura tonight. Unfortunately, I got home just as dark set in and while being a Muzungu in a house on Ilburo road is risky right now, walking around on Ilburo road after dark is certainly much more so, so I'm here alone tonight and tomorrow will go up to stay with them till Bryant gets home. Luckily, we have our old guard back, so I'm feeling only mildly anxious.