Clement and Clemence were married yesterday. ALSO, we're grounded for the week starting today.

The air is soft and cool this morning. Black Ibis birds are the only creatures disturbing the quiet morning. The sky is clear blue overhead. We're not going anywhere today. There's an international bike race (Tour de Rwanda) that runs from today to next Sunday. The Rwanda govt. has shut down schools, businesses and all houses of worship from Sunday to Sunday. The roads are blocked with the portable barriers they usually reserve for the two "no-drive-Sundays" each month. I believe it is to control the usual smog that taints the air and causes poor to extremely poor air quality most days.

But even though I'm a freedom-loving American, being forced to stay home and read, tend my potted garden, enjoy our usual Tuesday devotional on Zoom and teach our usual English class to each of the three zones of missionaries also online, finish sewing up the puppets and music-teaching kits I'm making for all nine branch primaries, sounds rather lovely.

Add to that, a few days ago I cracked my shin on a footboard as I paced the apartment, (accumulating steps on my step counter as I read my scriptures). I think I literally cracked the shin bone. It feels like a stress fracture and is worse if I walk far on it. So I think a quiet week without much walking will be just what the doctor WOULD order if I consulted one.

Yesterday, we went to the first religious wedding since we've been here. We've been to the civil weddings where they marry two dozen couples one right after another. They are tortuously long and the air is stifling in the crowded room. This was a religious wedding. We've learned that nobody pays much attention to those civil herd weddings. The couple doesn't even move in together until the church wedding a month or so later.

The custom is that the families negotiate the bride price before hand and then the day of the Church wedding, they formalize the exchange of "cows". It's most often done with a commensurate amount of money for the current bovine market, but it's a lengthy "negotiation."

The Wedding part of the event was scheduled to start at 2:00 pm. There's only one open Church building in the country where we are allowed to perform religious ceremonies, so the dowry negotiation was at a "closed" building, and the wedding was at Kagugu.

All of the senior couples were there by 1:45. We were the only ones. We waited. . .and waited . . .and waited. Finally at about 3:00 the officiator, came. Still we waited. . .

At 3:45, the guests arrived, (almost all at once) with the bride and groom. In this instance, we know the groom but had not met the bride.

The wedding itself included three hymns, (Love at Home, There Is Sunshine In My Soul Today, How Great Thou Art), an excellent talk by our mission president, (President Koranteng) and then the ceremony which was brief and conducted in Kinyarwanda. Part of it included the groom rolling up the veil covering the bride's face and laying it to the back of her head. Of course I expected a kiss to follow, but a public display of affection (EVEN AT A WEDDING) is not part of the culture. At the end of the ceremony, they gently hugged each other and the groom gave the bride a peck on the cheek. (Such liberties!)

The "recessional" music chosen was The Battle Hymn of the Republic. It's popular here for the rejoicing involved in "Glory, glory Hallelujah" I'm sure that a battle hymn will not throw shade on the prospects of a happy marriage.

The next phase of the wedding involved the bride and groom having their pictures taken with family, close friends and honored guests. I'm not exactly sure why, but we senior missionaries are always categorized as "honored guests." I assume there's some sort of status claimed by muzungus attending one's wedding. We've even been approached at church by total strangers and asked to attend their weddings! Recently a soon-to-be-bride explained that she needed some Americans at her wedding and she didn't know any, and so "could you please come?" The wedding was on an impossibly busy day, so I could honestly tell her that we couldn't come. It's strange to be thought of as desirable for our race alone.

We skipped the reception that was to be held at the same building as where the dowry exchange had been, because with the roads shutting down for the bike race and knowing that it wouldn't start until well after dark, it seemed risky.

I don't know if there are gifts given at the reception or not. We gave a very "portable" gift to the groom after we had our pictures taken.

The timing is nice for Clement and Clemence because with the whole country shut down, they'll have a week of time off work to be together and enjoy being together.

Happy Sabbath! (Or whatever day you happen to be reading this.)