The Procession
After the service was over, Justina and I stayed at the front of the church and we had a receiving line there as people filed out. Then comes the procession to the house of the bride's family.
Here we are just leaving the church. The umbrellas are just to keep the sun off of us, and our best men and bridesmaids had to hold them over us for the entire procession. Note also the horsetails which are already being waved in our faces.
We proceeded pretty slowly as there were people dancing in front of us every step of the way.
The umbrella-holders here are Felix Shipepe, a cousin of Justina's, and Chris Hoge, my best man.
When we were nearly home, the word came that the food was not yet ready, so we had to sit and wait a while, drink some Coke. We are sitting in the riverbed of the Oshigambo River, which only flows once every few years.
We finally got home, were officially welcomed by Justina's family, and then seated at this table in the yard while the dancing and waving-of-horse-tails continued.
Here we're about to drink some omalovu, a traditional drink made from sorghum. It turned out that the calabash the woman was trying to serve the omalovu with could only just barely fit into the mouth of the jug, and she had quite a hard time filling up two cups' worth for us.
Then it was time for people to give gifts - at an Ovambo wedding, guests come forward and pile the gifts up on the table in front of the bride and groom as we sit there and thank them (and as the bridesmaids simultaneously take the gifts off the table and put them on the ground to make room for more.)
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