i just had the craziest afternoon. i went to what they call a “send-forth”, where basically the entire neighbourhood of the bride came together to send her off into her marriage. there was about three hundred people, seated somewhat like a church would be and then a full out program started. there was an emcee to announce what was happening, and a dj that was pumpin’ the beats. the program basically included various times of prayer (loud prayer with lots of ‘amens!’), and dancing of certain groups of people like the brides friends, or the brides family and when people would dance, others would come up and throw money at them. and i don’t mean throwing money at their feet or anything, they throw it right at your face, and try to make it stick to you. so of course, they wanted the baturi (white person) to dance, and people threw money on me (i will definitely put this tradition into practice when i get married!). it was a riot! and those Nigerians, they can dance! the wedding is going to be a hoot. the bride also cut a cake while the crowd spelled J-E-S-U-S, because we couldn’t all physically help her cut the cake. i was introduced to everyone, because, well, i am white…and they did the introduction in Hausa so i had no idea what they were saying, and everyone was laughing…so…i just smiled. ah, it was fun. and of course, i forgot my camera.