It seems weddings are back in full gear. I would like to say that there is a season and the season has started. However, this is inconclusive. I have not, nor do I plan on doing actual research to conclude this theory.
I'm merely saying this because last week alone, I had been invited to three meetings (vikao) to plan and help oversee several weddings. I am actually supposed to be in one right now. But, I am not.
This must be a 2012 upgrade version of the basic request for mchango. Gone are the days when folks just asked for your money, gave you the invitation card and silently hoped you didn't show up. These days they want you to actually put in physical work as well.
Folks nowadays want you to get into altercations with their families over which table gets how many bottles of beer versus a bottle of John Walker. Then, there is the number of beer crates versus soda, the type of juice to get, Azam over Ceres.
Then, which table should uncles sit together so as to avoid an ancient family feud, and which MC to use. The MC has to have approvals from the uncles who coincidentally, do not speak. No, these days they want you to get physical and lose sleep and perhaps a kilogram or two for their weddings.
But you have to wonder. Which is better? Cash mchango or physical hard labor? I remember the first time I had received a card for mchango. I was 17 years old and a few months into my first job. I was excited and as usual, I was socializing on the go and talking to everyone. I think this somehow meant more to one askari because on that afternoon, he handed me my first every request card for mchango.
I was quite surprised and didn't know what to do with it. No, I wasn't going to contribute any cash to his uncles' daughter's step son's wedding. But still I was just wondering what to do with the card and whether or not to give him a direct no. So, I kept quiet. He somehow got my number and started calling me, practically hunting me down first asking, then advancing to demanding and nastiness.
In the end, I told him to go on asking other people and wished him all the best in his uncles' daughter's step son's wedding. He stopped talking to me all together and made my getting a gate pass harder than it had to be.
My issue is what makes two people who met God knows where, fell in love ( I'd like to believe) at their own time and decided to get married (without consulting if it works with my calendar) think I should pay for it. And, it is not that I'm asked to volunteer to contribute based on the size of my wallet, but rather I am hunted down, given no peace until I cough up not less than 50,000/-.
Yes, not only are you to contribute but you are given the minimum amount to pay and a deadline as well. So you could choose to either go into hiding, cutting off all communication with the outside world for fear of 'accidentally' running into the wedding contributions collector or cough up your hard earned, inflation beaten up cash.
