After we get to the church we find out that Jeanne's family from Thies has still not made it to Dakar. Apparently, the normal, approximately 2 hour drive has been made longer by the terrible rain and flooding that has occurred. They try to delay the start of the ceremony, but the priest is anxious to get started.
Here, the priest is telling Aaron that he can "still run!!" Just teasing, although Aaron did say the the priest did keep saying that to him.
The ceremony begins and Jeanne's god-father walks her down the aisle.
After about 2 - 2 1/2 hours, Aaron and Jeanne said their "I do's." Aaron read Jeanne his vows and I saw Jeanne start to cry and Si and I start crying. It was very moving. Aaron later translated the vows into English for us and I understand why Jeanne cried. Maybe I can get Aaron to add the translated vows in a comment to my blog and then you can see why everyone was so moved.
When the ceremony was over we exited the church to find that Jeanne's mom and dad had arrived sometime during the ceremony. Introductions were made and then Jeanne and Aaron got in a car to go to the Sokhamon hotel (where Chris and Jerry are staying) to take pictures. We all load up in the van to go join them. Lots and lots of pictures later we all head back to the church where the reception is going to be held.
From left to right:
So, the church has no air conditioning, the pictures were outside and the reception is outside. Have I told you how HOT and HUMID it is here? We are all pretty sweaty, but still ready to party. 
After Aaron and Jeanne have their first dance, a collegue of Jeanne's gave what we would call the toast and then asked Papa George and Papa Sirous to say something to the couple. In
Joseph's toast he said something to the effect that, "love knows no borders." That Aaron had come all the way to Africa to meet his wife. It was very nice. Then Papa George said a few words and told Jeanne that because she is a teacher she could teach Aaron about being a good husband. Then, Si got his turn and Joseph translated for everyone. Basically, Si reiterated what Joseph had said about "love having no borders." Si said how he too had traveled a far distance to find his two wives; Patti, the mother of his son, and me. Si then added he wanted for Jeanne to love Aaron as much as he does. Joseph translated it all, and Si was crying and everyone, I think, was suitably impressed with Si's speech.
The music starts playing again and Si gets up next to our table and starts dancing. Pretty soon a bunch of Jeanne's family is up and dancing with him, and before long we are all up there dancing. Oh yeah, Si is doing his "Iranian" dancing. They all got a kick out of that.
So we eat, drink and then because the music is really loud where we are sitting (we're right next to the speakers), we decide to move away. Chris, Jerry, Si and I are sitting at the outer perimeter of the church yard when Julian comes to get us for the dinner buffet. We tried to tell him we had already eaten enough, but he insisted and led us over to the line. He wanted to take us to the front of the line, but we convinced him that we are very used to standing in lines in the states. I believe he wanted to give us a place of "honor" by moving us up in the line. The only thing about this buffet --- the first time through the line I was behind Aaron and could ask him what everything was. This time was kind of a crap shoot. Julien speaks English very well, but translating native dishes and their ingredients was not easy. But we all certainly managed to fill our plates with enough food. We make our way back to our original seats to finish eating --- oh yeah, funny story -- no one told us we'd need our silverware from the first run through the buffet for the second run through too. We had stacked our plates from the first run through all together with our silverware, etc and they were no longer there. But Julien came through and found us all some more. So, we're back in our seats, right next to the VERY LOUD music speakers. Ouch! We had to yell to talk to each other. Another funny story---Si acted like he was going to the bathroom and walked by the speaker and disconnected the wires. Blessed silence. Unfortunately, after about 30 minutes someone realized the speaker wasn't working and they came over to fix it. Needless to say, the four of us moved back down to the outskirts of the party so we could talk and more importantly, save our eardrums.
About 11:00 p.m., the priest came out and told everyone to start wrapping things up. They started cleaning up and folding up chairs and tables, so we get everyone in our party together and get in the van to go back to Aaron's place. When we arrive back at the apartment, everyone decides to go to bed, so of course we go to turn on the air conditioning in the bedroom. Once again, yeah, you guessed it, we blow the fuse. But luckily, Si was able to flip the breaker, or whatever it was, and the power came back on. Thank goodness. We don't have to listen to the praying and the goat baa'ing. And thank goodness we don't have to sleep without the air conditioning. Have I told you how HOT and HUMID it is here????
To be continued................................
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