A Burundian Wedding Part 2: The Caravan of Cars

There were a great many people attending the wedding, and therefore, there were a great many vehicles that made up our caravan.

The wedding car

My van ride was quite different from my microbus ride earlier in the day. I had SPACE!
The passengers in the back sang some really awesome traditional songs. I took some videos of it, so maybe soon you'll hear what I heard.

At the start of the caravan, there was a blue pickup truck with a group of guys in the back: the videographer and his crew.
The videographer stood in the truckbed, swaying with the truck's movements and recording everything.

Behind the truck was the car of the bride and groom, and the rest of us followed behind. Our van was the "block traffic so the party stays together" van.
The driver would swing way out, turning our van into a barricade against the traffic. That took some guts, and I prayed that no one would ram into the sides of the van for lack of paying attention to the fact that there was a van hogging the whole road.

It was so out-of-the-ordinary, I had to laugh.

I soon found out that our procession was on a mission to capture photographs of the bride and groom in three different locations.

Our first stop was the "tree of love". The tree of love is where every couple goes to have wedding photos taken. Sadly, the tree is now in the middle of a roundabout, and people don't take their pictures in front of the tree. The tree is HUGE and so beautiful. I can see why it is a special tree. But instead of going beneath the protective and shady boughs, couples take their picture across the street from the tree.

At a Nissan dealership.


Yes, indeed, it is now Burundian tradition to for newlyweds to take their picture in front of a NISSAN DEALERSHIP.
I'm sure Nissan counts their lucky stars for all of the free publicity.




We spent a good 45 minutes there at the dealership. There were two other wedding parties there taking pictures as well. What a scene! All of the people milling about in front of the dealership, which faced a busy roundabout that contained the beautiful tree of love. There was space enough to take a picture in front of the tree of love, for it was a massive roundabout. I questioned my Burundian friend, and asked her why they always took pictures in front of the car place. She shrugged. I told her that she should follow proper tradition and actually take her picture in a pretty place when she was married. She just laughed.

It was, in a way, humorous to see this sight because of how I am used to American weddings. When I imagine newlyweds getting pictures taken, I think of a photographer and the wedding party only. Instead, there was a group of around 200 people that flocked around the couple, snapping pictures and shouting encouragements.

Another thing that struck me was the fact that THE BRIDE DID NOT SMILE. I asked some friends afterwards why this was. They said that it was because the bride was supposed to be sad.
A bride, sad at her own wedding??

She was supposed to be sad because she was leaving her family.
That and the fact that pictures are serious business. Smiling is silly.

After everyone was satisfied with their pictures, we hopped back into the caravan, my van blocking traffic and zooming around. We reached destination #2, the Lake. A group of boys were swimming, and people strolled about. Our party repeated the same process that we went through at the Nissan dealership.

The lake was beautiful, and a cool breeze came up off of the lake. It was quite picturesque.

After the lake, we went to the pubic park. By this time, some of our group were getting tired, and decided to stay in the vans.

What an interesting tradition: to go about the wedding photography with an entourage.

After all of the picture-taking, we went through another tradition. I am running out of time to type, so I'll post it soon!