4 funerals and a wedding

One of the things that is striking about living in Uganda is the number of people who die. I guess I knew before I came, that people don’t live as long here, and the average life expectancy I think is only around 45. It never really occurred to me though, what this actually meant, in reality. It’s no exaggeration to say (between the 4 of us) we’ve been to a funeral every week, for the past 4 weeks. They’re very different from any funeral in the UK though. Here, people are expert funeral throwers. Often the funeral will be held a day or two after the person’s death, and if you stumbled across a Ugandan funeral you would be forgiven for thinking it was a big outdoor village gathering. They’re huge. The first funeral I went to, which was for a pastor in a neighbouring village’s niece was no exception. We were almost mowed down by the number of bodas ferrying people to the scene, we arrived to a flurry of colourful dresses, poor quality speakers blaring out the words of the preacher and food, a lot of food. We were quickly ushered to an area under some trees, where the ground had been covered with plastic sheeting, sat down and handed mounds of matoke and beans, at 3 o’clock in the afternoon. The funeral for one of our student’s father was a more sombre occasion, it was difficult to see this tough young girl weeping for the death of her father, and it really hit home then, just how venerable people are here. How easily something that could be cured easily with the right medication, can lead to someone’s death.

Ironing!

our necklaces we made

make up 

the bride, who hardly cracked a smile all day,
except when she was feeding her new husband cake

Patricia, as flower girl with one of the bridesmaids

The wedding party, with Justine, the stylist!

Caleb, as page boy

On Sunday, there was a much happier occasion to attend to, (although judging by the face of the bride and groom, you wouldn’t have thought so). It turns out, that, on top of everything else Justine does, she is also a wedding stylist! She hires bridesmaids dresses, and uses the two wedding dresses she owns to prepare all the ladies for their big day! Sunday morning Jenny and I went down to her house at half 8, to find Justine ironing a huge wedding dress. We proceeded to string little plastic beads onto elastic to make necklaces for the bridesmaids. When they were finished, armed with dresses, a plastic bouquet, necklaces and tiara, a needle and thread and a bag of makeup we set off to the house of the bride. We arrived to chaos, with women of all ages babbling and eating and rushing around with head scarves on to protect their new hairstyles. After everyone had washed (baring in mind we were almost an hour late) and the wedding was due to start at mid day. We set to work, it was all very exciting, and  and of course we were fed, and my little friend Patricia was the flower girl, and she was ecstatic about being covered in glitter, and everything was bright, and frothy, and it did remind me a little bit of the Gypsy wedding programme! No one really spoke much English, but my Luganda is improving every day, and we managed to get by, mainly using hand gestures. Eventually, after several dress adjustments and eyebrow shaves everyone was ready to go, so we piled into 2 cars, decorated with little bunches of flowers on the windscreens and headed for the church. It’s so endearing how people manage to use the little they have to make things special. We took it in turns to beep our horns, so the journey was effectively one loud car horn. The wedding itself lasted 5 hours, and the church turned into the reception hall, simply by the wedding party moving onto the stage, where their plates were laid out, and large vats of matoke and beef and rice and beans were brought out. Soda was sprayed over the newlyweds, as they stood, very seriously. The strangest part to watch was when the groom sat on a chair and the bride and maid of honour knelt before him and fed him wedding cake and soda, I was pretty uncomfortable with the plainness of the woman serving the man, until he in turn fed her some cake and soda, and everything was fine. 

Sorry, the pictures just wouldn't go where I wanted them to!