Ephy’s Introduction Ceremony and Coworker Wedding

I had to leave early from the tournament to attend my sister’s Introduction ceremony that I was a bridesmaid in. Galen came to pick me up from our school and we headed to Kampala to meet the family. We arrived late in Kampala because public transit here is just awesome! (Sarcasm again, I have the WORST luck with transport here!) But it worked out to our advantage because we stayed in town for the night and got to eat some amazing pizza, ice cream and relax at a nearby hotel with some other PCV’s that were in town. We got to catch up with some good friends with a couple beers at the hotel bar. We went to medical the next day to stock up on medicine and then ventured around Kampala by ourselves for the first time. Our family was too busy with setting up with the ceremony that they weren’t able to pick us up again. Which was ok, because we went to the craft stores, golf course and almost went bowling, but they didn’t let us bring our bags in. So we went back to the hotel to play the card game Set for the rest of the night, while meeting some cool tourist in town for the week. (I love that game, and all card games, so if you see anything new and exciting, feel free to send it my way!)

 We packed up our stuff and got to mom’s early the next morning to help prepare the women for the ceremony. (I was some how picked to do all the girls make up because they liked everything I had… I keep in mind we have two completely different skin tones. So it was interesting!) This is the first time we had attended a true Ugandan cultural event and it was exciting. The ceremony itself was in Lugandan and being part of the ceremony I lost some of the translation of everything that was occurring. It was a longer ceremony where the bridesmaids and the bride sit in the back to wait to attend for most of the ceremony. Ephy being very fashionable had everything and everyone coordinated beautifully. Red and yellow ere the colors of the ceremony and mom had so much work done on the house. It looked amazing with all the decorations!

Mom and Ephy were SO EXCITED when we showed up! It made us feel so much like family. SO the ceremony itself: First one family sits facing the other family. In this case it was just the men from both sides of the family. (Mom and Ephy’s father don’t talk anymore, so that could have been why.) The first set of girls come out to immunize the ceremony and make sure everything is ok to continue. The there is a procession of aunties (not sure why). The there is a second girls that come out and do something (I believe to “look” for the groom). Then there is a procession of the brides men in the family, or muko. (Galen was part of this group.) The groom was then brought out with fireworks and sparklers! Then the procession of another group of aunties and elders came out. Now it was our time to shine! The bridesmaids came out to present or introduce the bride to the groom. (We also brought out flowers and all of this was down while dancing to a professional singer). After this was done we retreat back inside and just the bride comes out with her maid of honor in a different dress to be presented with the dowry from the grooms family. All the gifts are then brought into the house by the muko. We then quickly changed Ephy again and the bridesmaid leads her back out for the presenting of the ring and cutting of the cake. It was my duty to help serve the cake to the guests. It was then time to eat! (The main men ate inside with the main females in a separate room.) I was supposed to serve food to the men, but I kind of vetoed it after doing it once because it was really demeaning. I basically just held a tray and they told me what they wanted and I brought it back to their seat, like a servant. (My sister’s didn’t like that I was doing it, so they had me go eat myself.) After we were done eating we changed our dresses and processed out with the bride to present presents to the groom and the groom’s family. The groom’s family then leaves and the night is finished with drinking and dancing at the house. The girls tried to get us to go out to the club that night, but I was too exhausted.  The ceremony started at 12 and did not end until 9 at night…

We are supposed to get professional pictures back soon from the family! So I have better ones I will post!

Most recently I attended an Introduction ceremony of Galen’s coworker in Mbarara. It was slightly different than Ephy’s and this time I got to sit in the crowd the whole time to take in all of the ceremony.  It was a speed version of Ephy’s but they had traditional dancers at this one in between different “scenes”. They were AWESOME to watch! And I got to sit by some really cool girls who exclaimed the family and the ceremony to me a little better than the first time. They did things a little different than Ephy’s but the gist of it was the same. Ugandan’s can party!!!! We were stuck at the after party until 4 in the morning dancing the night away, and his other workers stayed up dancing until morning when they then drove back to Fort Portal! It was a lot of fun, I love hanging out with them and got to meet some NGOs from Ireland and Britain. So now I have a place to stay in London and Ireland when I go there! AWESOME!