Sunday, February 24, 2008

The adventure of a Peruvian wedding

Last night was Gerson and Zaida's wedding, the first Peruvian wedding that I have ever attended. It also happened to be the first Peruvian wedding in which I have ever been involved. Last Sunday after church, I was asked to play violin in the wedding, which sounded like fun, despite the fact that I wasn't given direction on what to play or anything, nor had I ever received an invitation (that came on Monday). I was told to choose a classical piece to play when the flower girl was walking down the aisle. Sounds simple, right? Can it really be that simple?
Practices were scheduled for Wednesday and Thursday evenings. I showed up Wednesday with Canon in D, only to discover that Bany (niece of the groom, who was in charge of coordinating music for the wedding) thought it would be good if I would play for worship as well. Fine with me, except I only knew one of the 4 songs. No problem. They were going to practice all the songs and I could learn and pick out the tune on my violin. I left church on Wednesday night with one song down, two songs half in my head and another one which I was supposed to find on Youtube and see if I could start learning from there. I decided to go the route of looking on the music on my friend's computer to see if by chance the song was on there. Bingo! I put it on my mp3 player and listened to it several times to start learning it.
Thursday night came and we almost didn't have practice because of the paro (transportation strike, also known by missionaries as a Peruvian snow day, since no one can go anywhere or do anything out of the house. I'll have to blog about that too). We finally decided to go ahead and have the practice, though, since some taxis were running. At the end of the night, I still had one song down well, two others pretty well learned and the other one...well, beginning, but still very much in progress.
Thursday I also finally got to talk almost directly to the bride and groom and found out that yes, it was great that I was playing and no, I wasn't playing when the flower girl was entering. I was going to play while they were saying their vows and taking Communion together.
I was listening to the song on my mp3 player various times throughout the weekend. So yesterday morning (the day of the wedding), I stuck the headphones in one ear and played along with the song. Yes! Success! I am ready...I think.
We were going to practice at 5, since the wedding was supposed to start at 6. But, I was told, I could get there any time after 4, since the rest of the musicians would all be there doing sound checks and getting everything electrical figured out before the wedding. I got to the church around 4:30, only to find that decoration of the church was still in progress, the brothers of the groom were the electricians and were finishing up sound and lighting issues, and the sister of the groom (who also happens to be the pastor's wife) was mopping part of the floor. And none of the other musicians were there, let alone anyone else (besides those working). We were, as the other missionary who was there kindly pointed out, a little behind.
Till everyone got there and we figured out the sound and how to make electrical cords stretch all the way across the stage, till the chairs were all set up and the bride and groom were ready to walk down the aisle, it was all of 7:20. And then the processional started with the bridesmaids and groomsmen. I discovered that here, they stand along the aisle and form a sort of canopy with the flowers in their hands under which the bride passes on her way to the altar. They never actually stand with the bride and groom. For that matter, the bride and groom themselves don't even stand much. They mostly sit on chairs in the front of the church. A pastor I didn't know gave the address and then I was supposed to start playing. I ended up playing the entire song 6 or 7 times over a period of 10-15 minutes while rings were being exchanged, vows being said and blessings pronounced.
Finally, the endless repetition was over (I think the monotony of the repetition was more pronounced for me, since I was thinking about it the entire time and everyone else was concentrating on the wedding) and it was time for worship, which went really well. Normally, Peruvian wedding receptions are held at the church as well, but this one was more American in that it was at a separate location, so after cleaning up the church a bit for the service this morning, we headed to the reception, 5 people squeezed in a seat meant for 3, arriving around 10 PM. Upon arriving, we found that we were still ahead of the bride and groom. They arrived shortly after we did and then the party began! The bride and groom danced with their family members and bridesmaids and groomsmen. Then they had games for the single men and women, including the traditional bouquet toss and a Peruvian game in which a number of ribbons with charms on the end are buried in a cup full of rice. Each single woman is given a ribbon and on the count of three, they are all simultaneously pulled out of the cup. Whoever gets the ring on the end of her ribbon is supposedly going to get married soon.
After that, we sat around and waited some more, talking and getting sleepier and sleepier while we waited for our food. Finally, around midnight, the lechon was brought out. Lechon is a typical wedding dish which includes very greasy pork, a baked potato, a stuffed pepper and a tamale. Thankfully, another Peruvian wedding tradition is passing around doggy bags so everyone can take home leftovers. After filling ourselves with lechon, we decided that, seeing as how today was Sunday and we needed to get up for church, it was high time we got home and we really didn't need to dance for another two hours. I crawled between my sheets at almost 1:45 AM, thankful for the gift of sleep.
Felicitaciones Gerson y Zaida and may God bless your marriage!














The musicians for the wedding
Josue, ?, Cesar, Bany, Marco, me

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

Thanks for such a great post and the review, I am totally impressed!

megs said...

Hi--I am thinking of taking a volunteer position in Cusco, Peru with GirlSportWorks, a small, young non-profit that runs athletics and girls empowerment programs in many schools there. I have been attending a Mennonite Church for the last year and finally found a church home. I am fearful to find myself unsupported in my faith while in Cusco and I found your blog. I was wondering if there is a Mennonite Community there or if you could give me any info on that? Also, I would love to hear more about Cusco and living there and your experience! Thanks! I really hope you get this message, I have to make my decision in the next few days.

Anonymous said...

I'm not sure exactly why but this blog is loading extremely slow for me. Is anyone else having this issue or is it a problem on my end? I'll
check back later and see if the problem still exists.


Here is my website :: www.bridalize.co.za

Anonymous said...

Hey! Someone in my Facebook group shared this site with us so I came
to take a look. I'm definitely enjoying the information. I'm
book-marking and will be tweeting this to my followers!
Wonderful blog and excellent design.

Feel free to surf to my web blog :: Www.Mashigomedia.co.za