Two weeks ago I got invited to a wedding. Well, a wedding party. There's no formal ceremony like in the West. If a man and woman want to get married, there's discussions about the amount of the dowry (aka: the number of camels the man should pay to the woman's family, I figured Seth must have paid A LOT of camels for me) and marriage becomes formal when the men of the two families get together, often at a restaurant, and over tea and snacks, make it formal by paying the family of the bride, among other things (I actually know very little about this part b/c I'm not a man and thus have never attended one of these shingdigs). Seth got to attend our friends engagement party. They videotape the whole thing and many pictures are taken. The bride's gets to have her own little party, usually at a relatives house, with all her favorite girl friends. But... they're officially married, but not completely. From what I understand it's like how Joseph was engaged to be married to Mary, and while they weren't completely married, it was binding. Clear as mud to us Westerners right? I'm not exactly sure how it all works out. Something like that. Anyways. After the engagement party, the couple searches for a house. When a suitable house is found the woman often uses the money paid to her family at the engagement party to buy furniture for the house as well as new dresses, perfumes, and other fun stuff. A week or so after the house is found, they'll have a wedding, usually at a restaurant in a hall area or in a home. Sometimes the wedding is for both men and women to attend, but usually its just for the women.
And I, being a woman, got to attend. The groom works with Seth, so I actually knew him better, but I was her guest. Seth got to help out the groom in various ways including driving people where needed and other random jobs, like picking up the speakers. While Seth was off being the world's most awesome go-for, I fed the kids, got them to bed, and got all dressed up in my fancy clothes. At around 9PM, my house helper came by to approve of what I was wearing, and settled down to watch a movie, while Seth and I were at the wedding. The wedding was at a restaurant really close to our house, which made me feel better about leaving the kids. My house helper is awesome and the kids love her. We told Eden what was going to be going on that night and that our house helper was going to be coming over after she was in bed. She was a little worried, but seemed to be OK with it. And there's also an armed guard sitting outside our house, so I was at ease.

Then my handsome hubby picked me up and whisked me off to the wedding. At the wedding I handed off the invitation I'd been given (the invitations kind of operate like tickets, in order to enter the wedding you must have a ticket) and walked into the ornate hall filled with about 70 of the brides and groom's closest friends and relatives. I quickly made some new friends (the other girl who was coming hadn't arrived yet) and then waited for...
the bride to make her grand entrance. She made a total of three grand entrances during the night. The first time she entered wearing her traditional fancy dress, accompanied by a girlfriend. Some traditional dancing and singing followed. Women would come to the mic and sing songs of blessing onto the new marriage. I was impressed. They wanted me to sing her a song, and though I thought they'd really like my rendition of "Happy Birthday" I continued attempting to attract as little attention to my rather white face as possible. The second time she entered she was wearing what looked to me like a prom dress accompanied by a flower girl. More dancing followed. I did get up and dance. One of the requirements of being a good Hoelscher grandchild is you've gotta dance at wedding, no matter what continent you're on. So, I made my kindred proud by dancing it up. Somewhere around this time the snacks were brought out. I forgot to take a picture until I was halfway finished with mine. I love food. The bride made her third grand entrance, this time with her groom, with Seth and myself following. For some reason, people thought that Seth and I needed to join the processional and sit in seats of honor. I took this picture standing behind the bride and groom waiting to enter the wedding hall.

And I took this picture of Seth sitting at the front of the wedding hall, before they made me go and sit in that empty chair on the right. So much for blending in... We finally went home around midnight. Woof. It was one fun night. Congrats to the happy couple!