A nonTraditional Hash Wedding

Every Saturday that I am in Maputo and not sick, I run with the Maputa Hash House Harriers. It is a fun way to spend a Saturday afternoon and Hashers are drinkers with a running problem. get out to see places that I might not go on my own. After the run, we go back to the Maputo Aeroclube (where we're based) for a drink. Hashers like to think of themselves as drinkers with a running problem. Most people have a beer. Sometimes I go for a beer, sometimes a Fanta. Mozambicans bottle beer in 40 oz. bottles so I only drink if I can find someone to split it. 40 oz. is way too much (for me anyway).

On Saturday last, after the run, we had an impromptu and nontraditional Hash wedding. The wedding party were all Hashers and the 50% of the guests hashed. The other 50% were either relatives of the bride and groom or locals who just laughed and shook their heads at our craziness. Wonder Woman and Hotzenplotz were married in an official ceremony a few weeks earlier in Europe. This one was just part of a party to celebrate with their friends here in Mozambique.


The couple had an Irish "pope" (Big Gun) preside over their nuptials which included promising to love, keep each over inebriated, and overlook the occasional sheep shagging (bride promised) or milkman (groom promised). An acappella Hash version of "Amazing Grace" ensured that the musical bases were covered. The locals sang the real words to the hymn in Changaan.


Before kissing one another, the bride and groom had to drink a down-down (i.e. a beer). That made some of the older local men and women looking on chuckle. Afterwards everyone shouted, ululated, yipped, howled, laughed, and expressed their happiness at yet another couple being committed.

Parabens Wonder Woman and Hotzenplotz!