If August was busy, September went by in a blur. I was once again out for much of it going to trainings and even got a mini vacation in.

To kick off September I got to go to a wedding. Two Peace Corps Volunteers got married. For Peace Corps to allow them to live in the same village and house they had to get legally married in Zambia and have a village wedding. I got to attend the village wedding which was a mix between American and Zambian cultures. It was held at a local orphanage. Majority of the children were gone back home for school break. Orphans in Zambia are children who have one of both parents that have died. They might go live with other family. If their extended family cannot afford to take them in there are some orphanages that will take them in during the school terms then they go back with their extended family in between terms.

To start off the festivities they had a Kitchen Party the night before. I was able to attend a Kitchen Party during PST, you could compare a Kitchen Party to a Bridal Shower. The one at PST gifts were given, traditional dances were done. The soon to be bride was completely covered in chitange for majority of it. The soon to bride was only uncovered when the fiancé came in, gave a gift, then slowly uncovered his bride as his family and extended family threw down money on the chitange as he was rolling it up.

The Kitchen Party during PST went all night long, but being in training I had to leave early to get to bed. During this recent Kitchen Party I got to see what I missed out on in PST. Let’s say it’s definitely not PG.

The Zambian women took the PC bride into a back room. There they gave her tips on how to be a good wife, also on how to please your man (were talking sex here people). Then the Zambians came and got us other female Volunteers. We had to get in a line and crawl on our hands and knees into the back room. Once there we all sat with the bride and drums began to play. Then two Zambian women started dancing. Then all of a sudden they took off their cloths only remaining in their panties. Then one of the women put on a wooden penis. The two women kept on dancing, wooden penis dangling and all. Then the dancer slowly started to dance into different sex positions one can do.

I don’t know what I expected as I had to crawl into a back room of an orphanage, but seeing two basically naked women display/ teach sexual moves was not one of them. As you can imagine us volunteers were a little shocked, laughing, hooting and hollering.

The following day, the actual wedding day was more tame. One of the big differences about the wedding that I noticed was there was a lot of dancing during the ceremony. At one point a cake was brought to the center. The kids who brought in the cake danced it in. Then people who brought gifts would dance up, place their gift on the table, get a piece of cake, say a little speech then dance on back out.

Zambians love to dance. When they dance often times they tie a chitange around their waist. They do this crazy hip movement things when they dance. I don’t understand how this type of dance is humanly possible. I’ve tried when I’m alone in my hut before and I’m pretty positive I just look like I’m having a weird spasm.

The wedding was super fun and it was great to see another person village. There are definitely some parts that will be very difficult to ever forget.