Beckendorf family visit to Gabon

While Chelan County residents try and keep warm and safe throughout a turbulent January, imagine for a moment a beautiful bride adorned in white, blue, and gold fabric, with her hair wrapped within a shiny gold head wrap. She stands with her new husband, Ralph Mengara, with a smile as warm as the day. Behind the camera is her adopted mother and "little mom," Dr. Tracey Edou-Beckendorf.

During the winter break, Dr. Beckendorf-Edou and her family visited her adopted daughter in Gabon, Central Africa. Dr. Beckendorf-Edou has known the bride, Murielle Okomo-Obiang, since she was 12 years-old. They met when she worked for the Peace Corps and was sent to live in Gabon from 1993-2003.

"There was a young lady who was orphaned and I took care of her from age of 12 on, so she calls me little mom. She's kind of like an adopted daughter and she was getting married," explained Dr. Beckendorf-Edou.

The wedding had three ceremonies, a traditional ceremony, a civil ceremony at the mayor's office, then a religious ceremony at the church. The photo published alongside this story was taken during the traditional ceremony portion of the wedding.

During the traditional ceremony, you can see people dancing, druming, playing music, saying congratulations to the bride and groom. There is a portion where both sides of the aisle will exchange gifts on the bride or groom's behalf. Gifts could include various types of cloth and scarves, rice, or livestock.

"What I did was I gave some money to help with the purchase of the things from the brides family to the groom's family, so I contributed to things like bananas and chickens and pig and goat."

Dr. Beckendorf-Edou bought Okomo-Obiang's wedding dress and was the ring-bearer duing the religious ceremony.