The Wedding That Wasn't

Daniel Mweemba’s son, Day, has been regular visitor in the past few months. We knew he had chosen a bride, so we were delighted when we heard the news that he had gotten married. We were even more pleased when we were invited to attend the wedding feast. Wednesday was the scheduled day, so our entire household loaded up and took off for the big event. Michelle, Lauren, and I all dressed up in our African outfits. Obrien and Victor (Day’s brother) came along. Before we got off Namwianga property we had picked up three extras who wanted to ride along for various reasons, so there were nine of us bumping over the bush roads.

Two dusty, jolting hours brought us to the bride’s village where we found her working outside--alone. “The program has changed,” she told us, laughing and smiling. She directed us to the place where Day and others were busy making bricks to build a church building for their congregation. Day assured us he had tried to call us but had been unable to get through. The wedding feast will take place on August 30 if he can raise the money to afford it. We all made a quick visit to Day and Victor’s home where his mother insisted on sending us home with a live chicken and some pumpkins.

By this time it was nearly 2:00, so we stopped in a small village and bought snacks and sodas for our riders. Michelle and Lauren discovered a “zam-genius” checkerboard that used bottle caps for checkers and had fun playing for a few minutes. We retraced the potholed trails and roads, laughing and enjoying a beautiful day and a fairly typical Zambian experience.