Saturday, July 7th. Today is the wedding of one of the SNV colleagues, Elvine. In the afternoon, Bernard drives us to the place which is still in Kigali, but in a different part. As we are driving, I see many groups of people that look like a wedding party, but it is not the one we want to go to. The road we are climbing now is only red dust and the slope is so steep that I cross my fingers that the car makes it. Bernard and Beatrice don’t know where the wedding’s location is exactly and ask for the way. Luckily, the directions we are given are good and we find it directly. In the middle of something like a forest, there is a restaurant with a big garden-like space around it. The entrance to the car park is decorated with two big white ribbons. When we arrive, the church service has just finished and some guests are already leaving, but in fact, the best part is yet to come. We follow a gravel path through some trees and bushes and more bunches of flowers to a lawn with rows of chairs. In the middle of the rows is a white carpet strewed with yellow petals. This is where the bride and the groom must have walked. Apparently, they went somewhere else to take their wedding pictures. We meet other SNV colleagues and move on to the area with tall tables where drinks are served. I hear that the prime minister is here and the former prime minister. The groom’s parents are high politicians. I don’t see them, but I wouldn’t be able to recognise them anyway. There are so many guests that they crowd even this extensive location. This is not a normal wedding, Beatrice assures me, but a very big and expensive one. The female guests are dressed in long dresses, some younger women in cocktail dresses, many seem to have their hair freshly done. Here and there I see elegant hats in the crowd. The men all wear suits, even the youngest boys. After a while, an announcement is made to follow the protocol persons to the dining area. The protocol persons are those with a white sign ‘protocole’ that show the guests the way. Rounding the building in the middle, we all follow another gravel path lined with flowers to a wide area where tables covered with white tablecloths have been put up. The chairs are also covered and decorated with yellow ribbons. Each table is loaded with drinks. Lighting the area are chains of lights and white balloons. In the middle, there is a floor for dancing, maybe. This really is a perfect venue for a big wedding such as this.
Not long after we have taken our seats, the bride and the groom come as well, she in a long white dress with a veil and he in a black suit. It looks beautiful as they walk along the path and beam all over their faces for the pictures. We are lucky with the table we have chosen as they take their seats directly next to us. Professional looking photographers bring their spotlight to take their pictures and I realise that we will also appear on many of those pictures. Representatives of the families address the wedding couple, but they are talking Kinyarwanda. Later, they will change to English and French which shows that these families are well-off and well educated, I think. Considering this whole venue, however, the languages are not really necessary to make that out. As the programs lying out on the tables indicate, it is now time for dinner. Small bread, soup and salad with smoked salmon is served by waiters dressed in black trousers and white shirts. The bride and the groom make their round and greet all their guests. Soon afterwards, we are asked to go to the buffet on one side of the area. There is more salad, eggplant, smoked salmon, fish, rice, cooked banana, meat, chicken, local vegetables. The guests carry heavy plates back to their seats.
While some guests are still occupied with their food and others are already leaning back with a full stomach, more speeches are given. One man is reading out a long french poem full of love and the bride’s siblings and her mother present their presents. Someone prepared a presentation with old pictures of the celebrated couple. At some point in time the wedding cake is cut. Bride and groom hold the knife together to cut two pieces out of the enormous white cake and then feed each other one bite each. A bottle of champaign is opened with a loud bang. The cake is also shared with the guests. It is made of a vanilla cream and biscuit and actually tastes really nice.
Everybody else on our table has already left and it is getting cold. Beatrice and I are also getting ready to leave when the music for dancing starts. Bride and groom open the dance floor with ‘The one and only’ and a lot of cheering from the guests. For the next song, relatives join them, first as couples and then the dancing gets more relaxed. It is a pity we have to get up early tomorrow, I think, as we leave the party.
