Zulu Wedding, Gorillas, and new Cameroonian friends

Last weekend we went to a Zulu wedding in the afternoon, and then their "western" wedding in the evening. I met Zamo, the bride, in the bathroom at the airport, on our way back from Johannesburg back in late October. She's from Kwazulunatal, South Africa (eastern part of South Africa) and she just struck up a conversation with me, wanted to know where I was from, etc. Her husband is from Brazzaville, so - she comes here regularly. We exchanged emails, and - next-thing-you-know, she invites us to her wedding - which she said wouldn't be until later March. So - in February, at our school, I received the invitation (I later found out the South African ambassador's wife delivered it),- SO, of course we went. The Zulu wedding was interesting - it was similar to the Congolese wedding we attended in that the gift exchange was very loud and "showy". For some reason, most of the gifts (at least the ones we saw) were pillows, blankets, comforters - bed stuff. A line of wedding people walked/danced through the crowd, singing and doing this yelp-like sound, carrying a basket - and when they stood in front of you, you were supposed to put $$ in the basket. So, Matt put some $$ in the basket, but they still kept standing there - and - it got awkward, like - did we not put enough in (Matt watched closely and made sure he put in the same as other people were), so - I just got out my camera and started messing with it until they finally moved on to the next people! On FB, I posted lots of pix of this wedding - so, you can see their dress, it was really cool! But in the evening - was the fancy"white wedding" at this elegant hotel here in Brazza. Before the reception started, Matt and I ordered two drinks (Kashia and Patrick stayed home with Stuart and Paloma so we could go out), and those two drinks cost us 15,000 XFA ($30, it was like NYC!!). Anyway, then the reception started,and for some unknown reason, we were seated at the SAME table as the bride's parents AND the South African Ambassador and his wife (who I'd already been in contact with, b/c our daughters are friends, but this was my first time meeting her!). Anyway, - how did WE, the woman she'd met ONCE in the bathroom, get seated there?? I don't know, but - it was a great time. The food was good, the complimentary drinks were good, there was a band! And, a highlight for me was - the band played "La Paloma", "Guantanamira", AND - "Waka Waka" - but, get this, all these South Africans didn't KNOW the "Waka Waka" dance (see Shakira video), so, they were watching ME do it, so funny. I've danced "Waka Waka" now for the Congolese President's wife, AND - a bunch of South Africans at a wedding. We had this past week off for Spring Break/Easter/Passover. Monday, we went with several other people to this pretty place called "Maty" - about 1.5 hours north of Brazza. We were caravanning with 4 other cars (5 total)and we got pulled over and - this cop ALSO wanted to take us in to the police station! Between Patrick and Gonzalo (from Portugal and with diplomatic status) - we didn't have to pay any bribes and went on our merry way. The cops here are SOOO annoying - every time we leave the house in our car, we have to worry about the police. OK, so - off to Maty. The other people there besides us, Patrick and Kashia, were Gonzalo and Maria (Portugal and Spain), three French couples, and an Indian/Tanzanian couple - most had children. So, our children played a lot with the other kids - we were by a pretty brook, swam, everyone brought their own food - it was VERY remote. Another day, Stuart and Paloma's friends, the sisters - Marian and Sarah (Lebanese) came to our house for a play date. Another day, we took the children to the Pierre de Savignon de Brazza Memorial. He's the "founder" of Brazzaville. He was Italian, but - had French citizenship and claimed the land north of the Congo river for France. It was interesting b/c it WASN'T that long ago, we were looking at actual pictures of him, and - his meetings with tribal leaders (who unknowingly were signing off their land to the French). Lot of pix were taken in late 1800s. He was given a hero's funeral in France and buried there, but - his remains were exhumed and brought to Brazzaville in 2006, so - we saw where he "rests". The Congolese really like him, unlike most other European explorers/conquerers. He seemed to have honestly thought that the French presence there would be mutually beneficial, and was appalled later on in his life when he returned and saw how the locals were being abused and the Congo's natural resources being exploited by the French. I read that he fell into a depression over it, and - that that depression led to his untimely death (he was only 53 when he died). Then, from Friday to Saturday, we went to the Gorilla reserve. Getting reservations was NOT easy. You have to first know where the office is (which has no signs or, of course, no address), and then hope that somebody is there (they weren't we had to wait 1.5 hours). So, somebody finally shows up, and - we book our trip. We couldn't have done it without our driver, Creppin, who knew WHERE the office was -and - also drove us to this place (3 hours north of Brazzaville). Lots of the driving was, in the bush, not even a dirt road, but - through long grass!!! We stopped at this BEAUTIFUL place called "Lac Bleu" (Blue Lake) and swam - we were the ONLY people there, sooo pretty, so pristine, surrounded by green mountains and jungle-ish countryside. Then, went to our hotel - which was a room on the reserve - with a shared kitchen/bath. We were the only people staying there. We brought our own food and cooked it there. The people who work there took us to see some orphaned gorilla "kids" (ages 1-5), and we also hiked around a bit - saw some monkeys, that was super cool. The next morning, we left very early to drive 2 hours north to see SID, the famous (here at least) gorilla who lives by himself on this island. We get there and take a boat to Sid, we were SO close, like - maybe 5-10 feet away, so close we could smell him. It was really great getting that close to a gorilla in the wild. He threw his food at us (he does that to everyone, we were told) and he totally nailed me with an avocado - it was funny, I was covered and had to change clothes. Then, we went for a boat ride around the island - so pretty! When we got back to Brazza, Laura's family had arrived. Her boys now live with her (they've been in Cameroon), are ages 5 and 7, so - Stuart is VERY happy to have boys living right above us. Laura's husband is also here (although he has to return to Cameroon for work), so we had a dinner party for them last night. Matt and Patrick grilled brochettes and Kashia and I made other sides, it was really nice, they were happy. So, Stuart is Laura's student (we LOVE her, she's a very good Kindergarten teacher), and I will be, as of tomorrow, HER son's teacher. Today, we took the boys to the school to show them around and take them for a swim. Our neighbor, Bryan, joined us. He often comes with us places, we love that boy (he's 12, his grandpa is Jean-Paul, our buddy). I will really be sad when it comes time to say goodbye to lots of people here, we'll be home in a short 10 weeks. A bientot!