27th August - more wedding celebrations

Rather than giving a blow-by-blow account from now on I will write the main things that happen. Today I found an internet cafe and was able to check my bank account and emails.  For some reason emails and international texts don’t seem to be working through my mobile, which is quite a nuisance.  In the past I have had problems finding a compatible dongle for my laptop, so finding one here might prove difficult.  The internet cafe’s internet connection was frustratingly slow, so I am very keen to find a better alternative.

In the evening we all went to another evening of wedding festivities for the same bride and groom as the event on my first day here.  This time the event was held in a huge air-conditioned room.  There were many tables and chairs for all the guests.  The bride and groom were dressed western-style, as were the bridesmaids.  They came in doing a slow, very expertly rehearsed, dance.  Then the bride and groom were led to throne-like seats where there were many photos taken.  There was a band which started the evening with western-style music, followed by an excellent local singer.  There was a lot of dancing the whole evening.  Food was served, almost identical to the food served at the previous wedding event.  There was a mixture mainly of meat and bread.  At 11pm precisely the singer stopped singing, in mid-phrase.  However the band took over.  Later Becca explained that there is a very strict law in Sudan that celebrations must end by 11pm.  She said it was the first time she had been to an event where this was ignored.