March 12th, 2011- The Wedding

Woke up like any other day, just another unbearably hot morning in Ouaga.  Only it wasn’t a normal day at all.  This day was my wedding day.  I took a shower and shaved, threw on some clothes, and briskly walked to the message salon.  Josh had booked us both a 30 minute massage and a manicure and pedicure, which I insisted we both get since this country destroys your feet, at 9 am.  We got there at 5 till, no one was there.  That’s okay, we’re early.  5 minutes passes and no one shows up.  It’s only 9 am and people are already fleeing to shade from the unforgiving sun.  There is no awning in front of the salon so we seek refuge under a nearby tree.  10 minutes pass, 15, 20.  Finally at 9:30 Josh calls the number he used to make the reservation.  “Je arrive” the women tells him. 

Finally 10 minutes later a young women arrives and lets us into the little salon; one room with a curtain that divides the massage table from the sofa area, which acts as a waiting area.  She turns on the air and we’re just glad to be out of the heat.  She works alone; so much for getting our massages and all at the same time.  I go first.  The massage is good, relaxing, but really more of a full-body rub-down.  Next, Josh was up.  As someone who doesn’t have a wonderful masseuse for a sister, and had never gotten a massage before, he described it as “disappointing”.  At this point it was getting close to 11, but I was still really hoping for that manicure and pedicure- my hands and feet were in sad shape.  As the lady was cleaning up after Josh I asked if it was still possible to get the mani-pedi.  She seem a little confused, but it was possible, and she put water on the stove for the footbath.  I guess the reservation system didn’t quite work for this lady and her manicure, pedicure, and massage salon.  There wasn’t enough time for both of us to get one, but Josh wasn’t too disappointed.  Things started off well; she put both my hands and feet to soak.  Then she pumiced my feet and gave ‘em a good scrub- then she pumiced, and filed, them again about 5 times with 5 different stones and files- and slapped on a foot cream.  All done.  Alright, that was unlike any pedicure I’ve ever gotten, but at least my feet were really clean.  Then she did the same exact thing to my hands, literally pumicing and filing them over and over.  Maybe here their hands get excessively calloused?  She seemed very concerned by how pruney my hands got from soaking for so long and didn’t seem to understand what caused it, She apologized over and over.  Do African hands not prune in water?  I walked out close to noon with very clean hands and feet, and perplexed on how a manicure and pedicure can not include touching the nails at all. 

I rinsed off the oils and did a quick shave again, then gathered all my things and ran to the Rooney house.  While Dan, the SED APCD, was in the US, his wife had offered me her house to get dressed at.  Lauren, my witness, joined me.  After a quick, homemade Lunch we got to it.  A hot shower (where I shaved for the 3rd time that day) and then I got to use a real hair dryer!  (Oh, the luxuries of being a real expat!)  Lauren did an impressive job with my hair and helped me get ready and Mrs. Rooney was wonderful. 

         We ran a bit late and rushed off to the mayors office.  Thierry, the training manager, picked us up in his nice SUV, while Dr. Claude, the HE APCD, picked up Josh and Shannon, his witness, from the transit house.  Once at the Maire Central we briefly waited in a blue waiting room until everything was ready.  From there, everything is a blur.  Dr. Claude acted as Josh’s mom and walked him down the isle, then Thierry walked with me, and Josh and I took our seats at a long table on a platform in the front of the room, along with our 2 witnesses.  We awkwardly waited a few minutes, a ball of nerves, not knowing what was really going on.  Finally Simon Compaore, the mayor of Ouaga and the presidents little brother, came in and took his place in front of us.         First he read over all our personal information (name, place of resident, parents, etc) and asked if 1)we were present and 2) if the information was correct, witnesses included.  Then he read us the marriage laws for Burkina, which were all in French and I was to nervous to be attentive.  Next was the “I dos”, which was him asking us a question, in French, and us saying “Oui” into the microphone. (How do you normally say it in French?)  Then a kiss for the crowd.  As we sat back down he put his hand over his mic and asked, in English, if we had rings, which we had.  Usually you do that before the kiss; how were we to know?  So we put the rings on each other and kissed again. Then everyone signed the paperwork and he presented me with our copies and a “Livret de Famille”, family health book, with instructions to start having lots of babies. To wrap things up he gave us a short speech in English, where he thanked us for volunteering in his country and making it a better place, and told us we were the first American couple he has ever married, followed by giving us the Burkina Faso medal of honor! 

        We Thanked him and shook hands with all who was there.  As we walked out of the building the Bureau threw confetti for us and we took lots of pictures.  Dr. Claude surprised us with a decorated car to take us to the reception, which was at the Jardin de l’Amitie.  The Jardin was way more decorated then I had expected, and our small little reception turned into the normal wedding fair.  The food was delicious and came in many rounds.  Country Director Shannon surprised us with champagne and a beautiful wedding cake, as well as giving a wonderful speech.  After everyone was well feed and thirst quenched, the girls insisted I threw the bouquet, which our witness Shannon caught.  To end the festivities we were asked to first dance to an American song, which was a typical song from the 80’s which I’ve heard several times before but didn’t actually know, and then dance to a Burkina song, which we had no idea how to dance to.  Thankfully some bureau friends helped us and everyone joined in.