Last week our neighbour’s daughter was getting engaged. What a great time for us to learn the customs of the people here. We could look right our our window, stand on our porch and watch or go right down to be in the middle of it all.
The young lady is 16 yrs old and she is going to marry a man in his 30’s from another village. He is not Ga’dang like she is but they both speak the local trade language. So much of what was said was in this other language, that we don’t know, so it had to be translated back to us. Thankfully we were able to video much of it so we can go back over it again and again.
There were 2 pigs killed for the meal and lots and lots of rice was cooked.
In the late afternoon the 2 families sat down to talk about the bride price, beads for a necklace. This is the most important part of the planning for the wedding. We were told that if the beads aren’t good enough that the wedding could be called off. It was interesting to see that much of the bride’s village was there to make the negotiations over these beads.
The people in our village were not happy with one of the beads, saying it had a flaw in it. They talked and talked for a long time about what to do. It was agreed to add some money to be given with the beads. After that they were to talk about the date and where it would happen. The last we heard the date was set and it would be at done at the Mayor’s office.
Then we all ate.
Then the gongs came out and the dancing began. We had a great time watching all this. Sophia waited all day to put her dress on and dance with her friends to the gongs.
We are thankful for the way the Lord brought this event right to our doorstep.