The other day we were invited to the wedding of Cowshiela's (the lady who looks after Evie) daughter. It was a Christian wedding, but was still an arranged marriage – as there are not many Christins here, it can be difficult to find a Christian partner, and so church and family both get involved in match making and negotiating details of the wedding. I don't know if this one was typical, but all the discussions seemed to be public property and for a few weeks we were given regular updates on how it was going. Apparently it was nearly called off at one point because the church leaders couldn't agree where it would be held.

The ceremony was loosly based on a western church wedding, with a service, vows and rings. It was lead by a very elderly pastor who, although clearly loved by the couple and the congreagation, didn't have much of a clue what was going on. Whenever he wasn't sure, he would whisper questions loudly into the microphone – which hand does the ring go on? and which finger?

One thing that was striking was that the bride looked absolutely miserable througout – keeping her head down and never smiling. This is a Hindu tradition – for a woman, her wedding signifies that she is leaving her parents to join another family, and to be happy at your wedding would be very disrespectful to them.

After the service we ajourned to a big tent outside for daalbhat – all except the happy couple who were sat under a separate little canopy, and generally ignored for an hour while the guests ate. They didn't seem to mind though, as both looked pretty happy and relaxed when we spoke to them later.