The Mayor's Office of Love

One of Peace Corps' finest-- Michele-- recently traded vows with one of Kedougou's finest-- Ousemane. He was her host brother first, but they quickly grew past brotherly love... They are very cute and lovely together, but instead of that, let's talk about the hilarious ceremony.

As "witness," the only title role, I worried a bit about how I could possibly perform maid-of-honor-ish duties HERE. The bachelorette party too... as high-profile people trying to keep a professional image in Kedougou, during Ramadan.... it didn't seem possible to do this right. But we did. Unfortunately I am not at liberty to share these details...

As for the wedding day, I got up as usual with the roosters and proceeded to pace around all day, reminding people when to get there, and even putting on my Nice Dress. I meant serious witness business, people. Several hours later though, and still no word from the blushing bride. I pictured her surrounded by odd cosmetic contraptions, clouds of hair spray, and those mice and birds from Cinderella. I'm coming, poor, frantic friend! She picked up the phone, "[Yawn] Uhh, yeah, come over. And bring a movie!" Uhhh... what?

Roxy and I showed up ready for action and was greeted by a girl in pajamas. "Hey! What's up?"

"Ummm.. isn't this your wedding day, Michele?"

"Yeah, crazy, right?" I asked about preparations and she waved her hand at the door and said Ouseman went to get her shoes. She got her outfit from the tailor yesterday. Want to watch the Office?

I grinned. Now this was a pace I was much more comfortable with! We watched and chatted and I unsuccessfully snuck candy (both she, Ouseman, and Roxy were fasting for Ramadan.) Ousey returned with some steller purple shoes and promptly took a nap on the floor.

Half an hour before the wedding, we convinced her to maybe, you know, dress? Now, 28 minutes to the wedding. Hmm.. We played around with the tiny pile of makeup the three of us compiled and tousled around her hair pretending it did something. She wore her mom's old earings, her brand new purple shoes, I gave her 100 CFA to borrow, and as for the "something blue" I just took a pen and drew a dot on the bottom of her foot. I felt like we were playing pretend wedding.

Especially since I then biked to the ceremony. The other volunteers were there in full form, mostly in ridiculous Senegalese outfits. We waited, true to all things Senegal, for over an hour for the mayor to show up. During the wait, the hidden donkey charette with the "Just Married!" sign and trailing tomato paste and fanta cans-- ran over and ruined the surprise. These sounds of jingling, braying, and people running to catch it became steady background noises to the event.

At the ceremony, the officials seemed a bit uneasy about having a room FULL of toubabs for probably the first time. They made us-- especially me and Michele-- switch seats about ten times. Then they wouldn't start until everyone had a coke or fanta in front of them-- even though about half the room was fasting and wouldn't touch it. They called Michele by her middle name. They spoke in such a rapid Wolof-ish french that we all struggled to follow. We held our breath when Ouseman didn't understand the "monogamy vs. polygamy" option at first. Whenever things were directed at me, I leaned forward and frowned in concentration. "Uhhh... OUI." I think I got everything until the end, when I inadvertanly promised to come back the next month to marry another senegalese guy. Oops!





My greatest failing as a witness was probably that I couldn't stop giggling throughout the entire affair. But everything-- EVERYTHING was so funny! The guys trying to put on a good show for the toubabs, the looks on the other PCVs' faces, the donkey outside and shouts of people catching it, the blue dot on the bottom of Michele's foot... I don't feel too bad, though, because the only other person giggling as much as me was Michele.


Hands down, the best wedding I've ever been to. Felicitations, Madame et Monsieur Kante!