The Wedding

So, last I left off, I was prepping to leave for Tokono for a Peace Corps employee's wedding.

The teacher's strike didn't turn out to be a big deal, however, the military AND the police started protesting. Eventually, they ended up fighting ONE ANOTHER in the streets of Conakry. No one is getting paid, and they are angry about it! I don't know why the police and military were street-fighting...but hey, this is Guinea. Never a dull moment here.


But because Peace Corps Guinea staff is so awesome, we were permitted to leave for the wedding. They even gave us a satellite phone to use so that we could check in with them every day we were in Tokono.

Condé, the groom, was thrilled that we could come. He kept saying "Il sera l'ambiance non-stop!" (It's going to be a non-stop party!) On the morning of the 17th, Amy, Alison, Felipe and I boarded a deplaced mini bus (deplaced means that Conde rented the bus) to Tokono, which is four hours south of KanKan. We volunteers were very impressed with the fact that we each had a seat to ourselves! This is very un-Guinean; almost all vehicles are crammed full of people.

Well, this impression did not last long. Just as we left KanKan, the minibus stopped and we picked up a four piece band AND their instruments, which included a large (western) drum set and several guitars. Oh, Guinea.

We arrived in Tokono four hours later to a massive welcoming. At least 300 children were waiting for us at the center of town and stormed the bus screaming words of welcome. We felt like movie stars! They all wanted to shake my/our hands, which I did begrudgingly because children are SO DIRTY. In my defense, this isn't just a "me thing"-- almost all other volunteers hate shaking children's hands.

No one in town seemed to know where we were supposed to sleep, so we were ushered to a series of houses, all of which turned out to be other guests lodgings, and not ours. Eventually our small group of Americans was intercepted by a member of Condé's family, who showed us the way to the family compound for dinner.

In the center of the compound sat a little table with four chairs. We were each told to take a seat and then handed a big bowl of (surprise surprise!) rice and sauce. All of Condé's extended family (about 40 people) stood around us, watching us eat, which was awkward. Eventually, the onlookers were handed plates of food to share with one another, but they weren't given spoons, a table or chairs. Their plates were placed on the floor and they sat on little stools on the ground. Every meal we ate in Tokono was like this.

After dinner, we were showed our lodgings, which were clean. Except, there was no toilet, so we all had to go to the bathroom outside in the woods.

The following morning, the "ambiance non-stop" commenced! We were given another plate of rice and sauce for breakfast, and a Griot visited the compound after we finished eating.

A Griot (pronounced guh-ree-oh) is a must-have for any major occasion in Guinea. It is essentially a man or woman that owns a megaphone, and they sing loud songs about people's last names into the megaphone at parties. They ask you for your last name and then sing the song about your family name's history and you have to get up and dance in front of everybody. Being Americans, we were the focus of most Griots. To throw the Griot a curve ball, Felipe told the Griot that his last name was "foroto," which means chili pepper in Malinké. So, the Griot had to make up a song about the chili pepper family.

In this photo we have Felipe (my sitemate) in the orange bandanna, me in the white polo and Amy in the blue dress, dancing to the Griot's music in front of a crowd.

After the dancing, we attended the makeup ceremony, which is just when you go watch the bride have her hair, nails and face done up for the wedding. FIVE Griots showed up for this ceremony, so we each had to dance for them as well.

Then, we all changed into our wedding complets. Here I am, the definition of Haute Couture. In Guinea, women usually have complets made out of the same fabric as their friends for special occasions, so we all bought the same white/blue fabric.Felipe and I in a prom pose. (Check out Felipe's socks underneath his flip-flops! He wears socks ALL THE TIME. And no, we are not dating.) All the volunteers that attended the wedding. From the left we have Alison, Amy, Felipe, Zach, Jess, and me. Zach and Jess met up with our group that morning.
The ceremony was conducted in two places-- a mosque for religious purposes and then a pseudo mayor's house/courthouse. We women had to use the back entrance and sit at the very back of the mosque. Men and women aren't allowed to sit together in a mosque-- not even a bride and groom at their own wedding!

Everything was conducted in Malinké, so we didn't understand what was being said. But it was a cool experience. After the religious ceremony, the bride was whisked away in what I can only describe as a covered wagon- type thing with a hammock attached underneath it. Four men carried her all over town and the crowd followed her everywhere they went.

The groom was transported in a black Mercedes Benz from the 1980's.

In the photo is the contraption and procession I've just described. You can see the bride's white dress peeking out in between the two men in the front.

This hammock procession eventually ended up in front of the courthouse/mayor's house. The civil ceremony took place here, which is needed to make a marriage legal in Guinea.

Afterwards, the ambiance non-stop commenced! The Griots showed up in their bright clothes and made us dance to live music in front of at least 1,000 on-lookers. To give the Guineans more of a show, we performed an electric slide/macarena combo which had them yelling with delight. In this photo: Zach and Amy dancing with a Griot (in hot pink).This is Condé on the left, sitting next to his new (and second) wife, taking in the ambiance non-stop.
It was a really fun day. We all headed home the following day. The minibus broke down about four times, but aside from that everything went smoothly.