My archived journey to Mozambique - Week #1

OMG I can’t believe that it has been a year already >.<. At this hour last year I was in Mozambique, preparing myself for another day of family fun. Oh yeah, most of you probably don’t know, I have family in Mozambique, my parents are from Mozambique, but I was born in Portugal.

I’ve been to Moz. (aka Mozambique) twice now, first time was back in 2001, during Summer vacation from High School, my uncles from my mother’s side paid my ticket, so that way I could meet my family members that I never met before, specially my grandparents (from my mom’s and my father’s side) I was 15 years old, I stayed there for like 3 months and I returned to Portugal just a couple of days after the 9/11 attack in New York, OMG I was so scared flying back home.

In December 2010, I returned to Moz. for a month, my uncle from my father’s side, paid me and other family members that live in Portugal, tickets to go to Moz. so that we could go to his eldest son’s wedding. Unfortunately my parents could not go, because my father was still kinda sick and the Doctor advice him not to go due to his health, so my mother stayed with him :(. That situation sucked like crazy bananas, because since my parents left Moz, about 27 years ago, they have never returned, can you imagine not seeing your brothers and parents for more than 20 years?:/

Anyways, so on the 6^th of December we started our journey, going on a direct overnight flight from Lisbon, Portugal, to Maputo in Mozambique, it’s about a 10 hour flight. I flew with 7 family members of mine, but I only sat down next to 3 of them, ‘cause the other 4 were setting on the front of the airplane.

THIS… WAS… THE BEST… AIRPLANE… EEEVVAAAARRRR!!!! >.< At least for me so far. Each person had his/hers own TV screen :O you could watch movies, series, listen to music, play games etc… I basically didn’t sleep during the flight, I watched 3 movies, one of them was Inception (which I saw a few months earlier on the cinema, love it).

Pics a) A map showing us the distance from Lisbon till Maputo; b) My options on "my" TV screen; c+d) the remote control, how cool is that thing?

Once we arrived to Maputo airport (already on the 7^th of Dec.), we had my uncle and cousins waiting for us, we said our Hellos and went to my uncle’s house… and OMG what a house. We had a second breakfast, and then some stayed at home, and others like me and other cousins of mine, decided to go out and start seeing the city :P

Pics a) They now have those covered motorcycles kinda reminds me of the ones in Indian or China; b) Yeah that Bus Stop does not look safe; c) Crazy bananas traffic >.<

On the 8^th my uncle was able to lend us a car so that we could drive around the city, and visit other family members. My uncle and his family were still working plus preparing things for the wedding, so they didn’t have much time to take us here and there if we need it.

Pics a) Maputo's Train Station; b) Maputo's City Council; c) Coco Nuts lounge.

On the 9^th after visiting some relatives, on our way to the city center we drank some coconut water :P humm delicious and then at night we had a family dinner. This was the night before the wedding.

Pics a) Le Coconut; b) so staues and paintings; c) Le Dinner.

AAAAAAND the D day arrives ^.^ meaning, the day of the wedding on the 10^th of December. I woke up very early in the morning, and started preparing myself, waxing/shaving, take a shower, wash my hair, blow dry my hair, straighten my hair (yes a lot of time invested on my hair), and do my makeup and my nails (which I ended up not having time to do them completely, I painted my hand nails at the wedding dinner -_-) my aunt Faira and her daughter Nilza, thought that I was crazy, waking up early to do those stuff, ohohohoh I clearly was not. While they went to the hairdresser, because my aunt Fatinha (the mother of the groom) made a reservation, I decided not to go, ‘cause I didn’t trust those hairdresser with my hair (I probably would have done a better job than some of them). Once they returned, not all of them were happy with they hair, so my cousin Nilza – that had previously worked at a hairdresser – had to do some touch ups on her own hair, her mother’s and my other cousin Tânia’s hair…. Plus since I took with me a butt load of makeup – not much compared to many makeup artists - I did the makeup for the 3 of them….. this was one of the reasons why I woke up early that day.

So in the afternoon we left for the 1^st part of the wedding – me, without my hand nails done -_-. The first part was at a Mosque - oh yeah my father side of the family is Muslim – oohhh dear lord, I never been to a Muslim wedding till that day…. And God I was not ready for this lol. The groom (Dickson) is in one building, with all the male guests, while the bride (Tânia – attention this is another Tânia, not the same that I mention previously) is in another building with all the female guests. And most of the ceremony is held at the groom’s building, what happens is that the groom’s father plus, I guess it was the godfather, leave the groom’s building and come to the bride’s building, and ask her if she wants to marry the groom… saaayyyy wwhhhaaatttt? Then the groom comes, and everybody does a long line and felicitate them. After this we went back home to change clothes, well not me, ‘cause I only had one dress, some other guest had a Sari to wear for the first part of the ceremony. My dress was from H&M, shoes from Sapatália, purse from Aldo. (You can see it and hype it if you want here, here, here and here).

Pics a) Inside the "the Bride's" side of the Mosquite; b) The bride with her face covered and I guess her Godmother; c) The men of the family, her Godfather I think, and the groom's father; d) ME :P duh.



The Groom Dickson Aly and the Bride Tânia A. Aly.



And then we head over to a Hotel in the city center, were they did like the civil wedding “al fresco” at night and this time the bride was wearing a “traditional” white dress Catholic style, and the groom was wearing a suit. They did what they had to do, sign the papers and what not, and we moved to the inside of the Hotel, 600 guests… yeah you heard me! Lots of mouths to feed >.<. So we ate and danced the night away, not till to late, ‘cause we had to leave at a certain hour because of the guests in the Hotel that we were staying at.  

Pics a) The flower girls; b) The Bride Tânia A. Aly.



Pics a) Le cake; b)Me and my cousins; c) Le guests; d) The Newlyweds greeting their guests.

  

On the next day (the 11^th), the fun continues. My uncle host a lunch gathering for the newly weds, with some closer family members, at his place, there were at least, AT LEAST 100 people there for sure. We ate outside, my uncle has a massive back yard, and he has a cemented football field that he covered so that it protected us from the hot sun and the occasional rain. For this day I wore a long summer lilac dress – oh yeah December in Africa means Summer time :P – with some wedge/platform sandals. (You can see it and hype it if you want here, here, here and here).

Pics a) Me and the Newlyweds; b+c) Outside Lunch.

And last thing (for now) on the 12^th, there was another lunch gathering smaller than the previous at my uncle’s place, this one was with the aim to deliver the newly weds presents. So there was like 2 groups, one delivering the presents and another receiving the presents, and there was some traditional signing going on, I filmed it, I just haven’t uploaded the video anywhere, I would need to do a lot of editing, and I’m still not sure if I will upload it or not, let me know if this would be something that you would like to see.

Pics a) Preparing the tables; b) Me with a Capulana; c) Le guests.



And that’s it for now, wow I thought that I would be writing much… but clearly I got carried away. Next time I will try to contain myself a bit more. xoxo

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These pictures were taken and belong to Me/Karen U..