A Nice Day for a White Wedding

Yesterday I talked about how a friend here in Gaborone was getting married and had her bogadi (bride price) negotiation. Well, today was the wedding. It wasn’t a traditional African wedding since the bride was an American, but there were several elements which did reflect the local culture. For instance, the parents and extended family of the couple had significant roles in the wedding ceremony. And all the elders were invited to bless the couple.

Unfortunately all the guests were asked not to take any pictures of the wedding, so I can’t really convey the general atmosphere. But, here is a picture I took of the crowd as people were greeting everyone after the ceremony. I figure if nothing else it is an interesting glimpse of all the different types of attire you tend to see here, especially at churches and weddings:

And here I am wearing a traditional Southern African summer dress I bought when I was in Zimbabwe last month. I should also mention there is a lot of greenery behind me which is very atypical here. We tend to take a lot of pictures of flowers and trees since we have so few and springtime is so short.