Tad's Life

The big event of the month... OK, of the year... is the wedding of my niece Gretchen. Last Friday, the 17th, she and her colleague Ousseynou Dia (sounds like "john" without the "n"!) got married. For those on the Hampton side of the family, you'll have to pump her for details about the wedding and her husband, but let me show a few photos and give an overview of our part of the day.

Jane went over in the morning to spend the day at Gretchen’s house. She took breakfast stuff (crepe batter and a coffee maker and a few other bits) to serve the few friends expected to come to help Gretchen prepare for the reception. Most of those girls were delayed until early afternoon, so Jane and Gretchen had a nice calm morning to chat.

I came over later in the afternoon to deliver our digital camera to Jane. It was just about the time that Gretchen was to head off to an appointment at the beauty salon, so we snapped a few shots and left. We had to get Jonathan from school and get dressed ourselves.

We got back to Gretchen’s before 5, just in time for me to head over to the local mosque. The actual wedding ceremony here does not include the presence of either the bride or the groom. Older men of the two families have a small ceremony that makes the marriage official. In a meeting earlier in the week, Ousseynou’s uncle had explained that as a non-Muslim I would have to observe from the courtyard, after the 5 o’clock prayers. When I got there, though, I was invited to sit at the back of the congregation and watch. That was my first opportunity to be inside of a mosque.

After that brief ceremony, we all left the building and I was steered toward the two men who had represented Gretchen. One is Mr. Ibrahima Sall, the husband of Gretchen’s good friend and colleague here, Awa. I already knew that he is a highly educated and well-traveled social scientist who runs a key research funding agency here. What I soon discovered is that he is originally from Gambia and an English speaker. We had a very nice time visiting as we walked back to Gretchen’s place (2 blocks) and waited for her to make her grand entrance. (Her's is the skinny building at the center of the photo just to the left of the pink one.)

And what an entrance! Clothes and make-up and all of that stuff are very big here. And that suits Gretchen to a T. She was in her element. Her role was to be the star attraction, followed around by a videographer with horrible hot lights and a power cord. She greeted each one there and posed for photos with everyone and generally exhausted herself as the hostess. Her husband, too, was scurrying here and there, always on his cell phone arranging all the details of the party.

There was music and conversation and snacks. Very nice for us who weren’t running the affair! I discovered that Amy Dione's brother-in-law is Ousseynou's uncle and had an interesting chat with him about World War II and other geo-political stuff, much to my surprise. I also got included in a more formal testimonial time in which the men of the family took turns sharing various positive memories of their lives together. I had never heard of anything like it and must ask around. While I was socializing with the men, Jane was here and there following Gretchen, taking photos and helping where she could. Eventually I ran Jonathan home and came back.

Gretchen and Ousseynou got away fairly late that evening and went on a short honeymoon at a beach place not too far out of the city.

God's blessings on their marriage.