...Nigerian wedding experience...

I was able to attend a Nigerian wedding this past Saturday, a grand affair held by an affluent family in a very large reception hall for 400-500 people!  Friends of the bride and groom and their families are invited to the wedding celebration, and those friends also invite their own friends.  The bride chooses colors for the wedding, in this case silver and turquoise, and the guests dress in those colors, even in certain fabrics that are chosen for dresses, if one chooses to have one made for the occasion, but certainly head wraps for women and hats for men, and body wraps for women.  It is, indeed, colorful.

There are customary entrance dances for the groom's family and the bride's family, as well as for the bride and groom.  I got to do the traditional dancing, though not too well, for the groom's family's entrance. There were tons of food and non-alcoholic drink.  There was lots of dancing by all after the bride and groom first dance.  They do something called "spraying" of parents and the bride and groom.  Spraying is like our Dollar Dance, but more like showering the dancers with naira, the currency here.  You are to take part in the dancing around, say the groom's parents or the bride and groom, and stick bills on sweaty shoulders or foreheads.  Little children are on the floor underneath to retrieve the bills for whomever is dancing and getting sprayed.  One is to spray in an amount commensurate with their own wealth!  The money is then used by the bride and groom as they see fit, or by the parents to defray the costs of the wedding, in the case of the one I attended, quite lavish!

I have my faculty/staff/public presentation ready for Wednesday noon.  It will be on high incidence disabilities, which will be the focus of the new training program at Kwara State University.  My Graduate Assistant Jenna, my secretary Alison, and my children will be proud of me that I did the PowerPoint all by myself - really easy!  Even put some "bells and whistles" in it, along with lots of photos!  The presentation will be taped and given to the First Lady of Kwara State in that she is out of the country and cannot attend.  She is very interested in services for special needs children and has access to monies herself and contacts within this state for some of the recommendations that I have made, i.e. a Child Development Clinic...