ethiopian wedding

sunday had rie and i heading to los angeles to us attend an ethiopian wedding. it was the first time attending an african wedding. it was held at an ethiopian christian church near downtown los angeles.

it was a very festive wedding with a lot of singing and clapping and dancing during both the wedding ceremony and the reception. it was not your typical american style wedding with huge introductions of the wedding party, canned disco music, picture slideshows, and very cheesy toasts to the bride and groom. it was a 'roots' type wedding with a lot of prayer (this was a christian wedding) and homage to the lord for allowing such happenings to take place for the couple to meet. rie and i were one of two non-ethiopian couples at the ceremonies. everyone else was from ethiopia or of ethiopian background; estimates of the wedding numbers were around 500 people. yet i did not feel the least bit out of place as everyone who we met or encountered, were very kind spirited. it was also very refreshing to see one of the little girls running around to each table, introduce herself, and give each one of us a little candy from the little gift bags at the tables.

this was also the first time i was able to eat ethiopian cuisine. again, the wedding reception was not catered - stemming back to the 'roots' type flavor - so the food was made by the members of the church. we got to discussing the style of food with rie's friend tsion and apparently, making their type of food takes a long long time. the dishes are very similar to indian cuisine in that they have a lot of stewed type dishes ranging from chicken, beef, and lamb. the food is very 'homestyle' and is warm and comforting. no extravagant displays or colorful arrays of ingredients. as soon as i get the chance, i will post a photo of my humongous plate of food. it was very good by the way - something i don't think i'll get to taste very often, especially due to the fact that the food was all made by members of the church who were in support for the wedding of their members and not for business.

each day i see another side of other cultures, i begin to understand that people are all in for the good of life. it's just that the cultural diffences between people, often times, make it difficult to understand where people are coming from. people come in all different sizes, shapes, colors, etc. i'm glad to have the chance to see so much diversity in the world. amen.