Day Ten (Marriages and Markets)

Today we got to witness Prince’s second wedding. Just in case you are wondering in Nigeria they have a three-fold marriage process. 1. The traditional wedding 2. The court wedding and 3. The church wedding. The traditional wedding is to get the parents permission to marry the girl. The court wedding is their legal marriage and the only wedding required by the government. The church wedding is an American style of wedding I think, and afterwards the couple is allowed to officially say they are married and live together. It was very interesting because they do four weddings at a time to save time in court. Prince and Flo’s wedding was in the third set so we witnessed a total of 12 weddings in one sitting! The funny part was that Prince and Florence want to save their first kiss for the alter but the judge required that they kiss at the wedding to make it official. Before Flo even saw it coming, Prince kissed her on the cheek and they sat down laughing about it. The judge didn’t think it was good enough so after Prince told the audience to look away he kissed her on the other cheek. Afterwards we had their reception in a park were they served egg rolls and minerals. For you oeebos an egg roll is a hardboiled egg inside of a dinner roll, and minerals is what they call soda here. After the time in the park we headed to the trade village market which is right in the center of downtown Abuja. So picture down town Portland and right in the middle is this walled in village of huts with thatch roofs. It was totally awesome! There we found hand carved masks, chess sets, djimbes, and animals. There were also clothes, animal skins, and leather goods there. As Amanda put it “Its not about spending money, it’s about getting things.” My favorite buys were the Djimbe and the Ghana trade beads. Afterwards we went to AJ’s Pizza, “The only pizza chain in Nigeria” as the sign puts it. The pizza was god but the time spent with the team and the rest of the gang here was what made it special. We are hoping to go to the trade market again later next week so we will keep you informed. From your friendly neighborhood blogger, DragonRunner11.