Something must always go a little astray from the plan on wedding days…right? So here’s just some of what happened on their wedding day.
#1. Fruit juice in the petrol cans. Getting enough gas for the canoes is a big deal around here. If you buy more than about 3 gallons at a time you need to have an official explanation. Here in the land of gas – crazy. Anyway, they’ve been planning and stocking up for weeks to make sure that there was enough gas to do all of the canoe running around. And on the big day, it turns out there was fruit juice in a bunch of the petrol cans. Don’t ask because I don’t know.
#2. Due to the lack of gas, a lot of the people weren’t able to get to the central community area – including 40+ people on the other side of the river in full traditional dress and the folks who were going to cook the food for the wedding. So we (the western contingent jumped in and that’s where I peeled my first green banana). A huarani group was also kept away due to lack of petrol – who had brought spears, and were ready to do the needful.
#3. What? No generator? They were counting on a generator being available in the community hall since it would be full of people and for music and dancing afterwards. Alas, no generator. The only real house in the center has a bar as part of the house and a generator which is used on occasion to chill the beer. So, a team of guys goes and takes the generator out of the house and carries it over to the hall to set things up.
I put on the traditional outfit I rented – lil’ Ocelot top, feathered crown, beads & little woven skirt – but then we found out that the dancers in the wedding couldn’t get their costumes (see #1 above) and so I (and others) passed ours on. So I only had a very short time to ask “would you like to touch my ocelot?” [see photo on a previous post]
The nun with the guitar, and the “vicar” with the Kichwa hymnbooks did make it. Typically the grooms family and the brides godfather come from their house in full dress (& facepaint) and dance their way over to the brides house and then the families dance together and then all dance back to the grooms. We followed the same process in the community with the hall being Patricios house and another house in the community being Mari’s.
And then like most weddings – ceremony, eating, dancing and drinking followed.
#1. Fruit juice in the petrol cans. Getting enough gas for the canoes is a big deal around here. If you buy more than about 3 gallons at a time you need to have an official explanation. Here in the land of gas – crazy. Anyway, they’ve been planning and stocking up for weeks to make sure that there was enough gas to do all of the canoe running around. And on the big day, it turns out there was fruit juice in a bunch of the petrol cans. Don’t ask because I don’t know.
#2. Due to the lack of gas, a lot of the people weren’t able to get to the central community area – including 40+ people on the other side of the river in full traditional dress and the folks who were going to cook the food for the wedding. So we (the western contingent jumped in and that’s where I peeled my first green banana). A huarani group was also kept away due to lack of petrol – who had brought spears, and were ready to do the needful.
#3. What? No generator? They were counting on a generator being available in the community hall since it would be full of people and for music and dancing afterwards. Alas, no generator. The only real house in the center has a bar as part of the house and a generator which is used on occasion to chill the beer. So, a team of guys goes and takes the generator out of the house and carries it over to the hall to set things up.
I put on the traditional outfit I rented – lil’ Ocelot top, feathered crown, beads & little woven skirt – but then we found out that the dancers in the wedding couldn’t get their costumes (see #1 above) and so I (and others) passed ours on. So I only had a very short time to ask “would you like to touch my ocelot?” [see photo on a previous post]
The nun with the guitar, and the “vicar” with the Kichwa hymnbooks did make it. Typically the grooms family and the brides godfather come from their house in full dress (& facepaint) and dance their way over to the brides house and then the families dance together and then all dance back to the grooms. We followed the same process in the community with the hall being Patricios house and another house in the community being Mari’s.
And then like most weddings – ceremony, eating, dancing and drinking followed.
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