Lobola

Today I went out to Soshanguve with Sarah and Doug for what we thought was going to be a wedding for Champagne (one of Granny's granddaughters) and her boyfriend July. We had misunderstood, and instead of a wedding, today was the lobola negotiation. Lobola is like a dowry--it's the money that a man or his family must pay to the prospective bride's family. We were told that July's family would be arriving at Granny's just before sunrise, but we opted to go ahead and come a bit late...we arrived at 9:30 instead of 6:00am. And, the family had not yet arrived. There was some miscommunication between the families, so as things turned out, July's family still hadn't arrived by the time we left just after 2:00pm. But we had a great time hanging out with the family, hearing more about their cultural traditions, and even seeing Granny kill two chickens for the meal. You might not want to look at the last of these photos if that last thing on the list bothers you...

Me with Champagne's daughter, Sofatso


















Laundry on the fence...and Doug's car. The boys had fun washing the car while we hung out with the family.


















And...not for the faint of heart...the freshly decapitated chicken.