On Saturday, I attended a Tswana wedding! Boi, the chair of the HR department for the Botswana-UPenn program, was getting married. In Botswana, weddings are open invitations; especially if the wedding is held in a small village — everyone knows about it, and everyone comes! Since the food is home made, all female relatives of the bride come together to prepare the food for the large crowds.

The schedule for the wedding.

I wore my traditional Botswana skirt (the one that Mma Thipe and Irene helped me pick out) to the wedding and received quite a few compliments on the skirt!

 

At the wedding, there was a lot of singing and dancing as well. The bride and groom danced their way out of the wedding tent so that the bride could go change into a more traditional attire; then, they danced back in. Everyone, no matter their age, danced as if they had unlimited energy!

Left to right: Cynthia, Mma Monare, anonymous intern, Pinkie, Doreen