Malawian Wedding

Mr. Kadangwe is a local teacher in our secondary school.  He is actually a retired headmaster so he's older than the rest of the teachers.  One of his daughters is attending Bakhita in the secondary, another is attending the college, and another daughter was married this weekend.  The service was at the Catholic Parish and it was pretty typical.  The bridal party arrived in a mini-bus decked out in balloons and streamers.  There was a best man, maid of honor, flower girls, and a group of dancing kids (mostly typical).  The mass was like a normal wedding except after the vows everyone started singing and the guests processed/danced up to congratulate the couple.  The strange thing was that the service included the wedding ceremony and an entire mass and still managed to finish in an hour while a regular Sunday mass can't seem to finish in under two.  Afterwards, the bridal party took the mini-bus and as many guests as could fit piled onto a flatbed truck and drove out to the village for the reception.  The volunteers and teachers went in the Sisters' truck arriving a little late so we missed out on the meal.  We arrived at the reception and they had a temporary canopy set up with speakers and a DJ.  The DJ setup was basically a big speaker, microphone and a CD player/Tape deck.  They introduced the bride and groom and began the presentation of money and gifts.  Giving money began with individuals coming up while music was playing and tossing small bills (5 Kwacha) into a basket the couple was holding one bill at a time.  It continued for a while and the people became less concerned about getting it into the basket and were just throwing it into the air or in the couples general direction.  The money was gathered off the ground and given to some money counters off to the side.  Then groups of people started going up announced by the DJ and danced to the music again while just tossing the money up into the air.  One of the groups announced was the Bakhita teachers so I went with the local teachers and got some change from the money counters.  We worked our way through the crowd and waited until it was our turn.  Then we entered the circle danced around tossing money into the air.  Like other times I have danced in a large crowd here, the dancing white guy got a little bit more attention.  This time at least Gary and Eva were with me.  The money tossing lasted about 2 hours.  I guess the closest thing to compare it to is the Dollar Dance.  Maybe it is for people to show off how much money they are giving, but maybe its just to meant to be a little more fun than sticking the money in a card and putting it in a box.  I don't know.  Then the gifts were presented one at a time by the guests.  It was approaching evening at that point so after we gave our gift we had to leave which is unfortunate because I think the party at night would have been a lot of fun.