Yes, it could be something out of a movie. The community was celebrating three Jewish weddings and the annual Music and Dance festival, all in one day and all in front of the very guest house where we were staying in. Could our timing be any better? At services yesterday, Gershom made a very stern announcement that the weddings needed to begin promptly at 9 am, in order to have time for the over 300 guests to eat lunch and prepare for the music festival. Gershom was there at 9 am, ready to begin. Guests slowly trickled in, dressed in their finest clothes, mingling about. But alas, no brides nor grooms in sight. 9:30 am..still no brides. 10 am. No brides. 10:30 no brides but lots of hot guests beginning to move chairs about in the synagogue. I helped set them up and the musicians also arrived with their equipment. Rabbi Gershom took advantage of the moment to offer all of the guests a drash on a Jewish wedding. Then we waited some more. Then Gershom gave another drash. Then they played music and people got up to dance, in the aisles and in their seats. The meal preparations were taking place outside..and people were decorating Gershom's car for the brides and the grooms, who were shuttled from their villages to Nabugoye. By noon, the first bride and groom had arrived. The family danced the bride in with loud la la la screaming. The first groom was the religious leader from one of the villages. The sanctuary was packed and after the first wedding concluded, we moved the other two weddings to the newly tented area in front of the guest house (where the music festival was to already have begun). All of the guests stood up, picked up their chairs and made a mass exodus down the hillside, past the wedding feast preparations, to the tented area. The second weddings' bride was Gershom's younger sister and Rabbi Ephraim, from a neighboring village, He was carried in on a large fully upholstered lounge chair, down the hillside and through crowds of screaming friends and family members. Marci thought there were about 300 Abayudaya there. Marc estimated 500. The US National Park service would have said 4000. The third wedding finished around 1:30 pm and the hundreds of guests enjoyed a wedding feast, which included chicken and turkey, slaughtered by Rabbi Gershom to make it kosher, and prepared in front of our very eyes every time we walked back and forth to the synagogue. They also had potatoes and rice.
Within minutes,lunch ended and the music festival began. Song and dance troupes, including children of all ages, from each of the Abayudaya villages, performed for screaming fans. Lots of African rhythm and pelvic thrusting. Those women can move! At the end, it turned into an Abayudaya African outdoor disco, and a few North Americans, decided to join in the fun and we did capture Marci, Marc, Rebecca, Shayna and all of the Weiss' dancing the African night away along with scores of Abayudaya children, dancing in front of each of us and imitating our every move. Video is available but this one might cost you.
I have to stop typing for a moment to see the group of African drummers and dancers who just happened by. You don't want to know but we've seen several of these already and know that they are celebrating a male circumcision. (And not at 8 days!)
With the African sunset, we lit the last night of Hanukah candles in the synagogue, sang Hanukah songs and played dreidel. We gathered our suitcases together and loaded the taxi van for our late return to the Mbale Resort Hotel.
PS We also met Jason, a junior at Brandeis University, Marci's alma mater, who is interning in a clinic near Mbale. He has incredible stories of his experiences and welcomes you to read his blog at jasoninuganda.blogspot.com
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