Ghanaian Wedding!

On Saturday I went to the engagement ceremony of one of the mamas named Suzy! This is a ceremony that takes place before the wedding to make an engagement official. The entire ceremony was in fonte so it was a little hard to understand what was going on, but some of the Ghanaians there explained to us a little what was going on. Essentially what happened was the heads of the households exchanged gifts, then many prayers and songs were recited, and finally the bride was brought out and the couple exchanged rings. The entire thing took place in the living room of the bride’s parents’ house, with about 50 people squished in. 

Global Mamas interns dressed up for the wedding!

Families exchanging gifts

The couple exchanges engagement rings!

Afterwards everyone went outside where tents were set up and music was played (though pretty much the only ones who danced were the children present).  The newly engaged couple were greeted by many cheers when they came outside, and many pictures were taken! Then the meal was served, jollof rice with some meat. Also, they handed out plastic baskets to all the guests, which I guess is a tradition at Ghanaian engagements. 

The newly engaged couple!

The entire thing did not last long, the ceremony started around 1pm and we left by 2:30 or so. Though officially the ceremony at 9am. However, this was 9am Ghanaian time, which means actually starting at 1pm. We showed up around 11:30 despite the 9am start. I am starting to get used to how this "Ghana time" works! The ceremony was really cool to see, and we had a lot of fun playing with the children there, including this little girl who I think is a future model based on how she was posing with our sunglasses!