The Wedding

Cathy from next door got married. In Indonesian culture, marriage is the most significant life cycle experience for a woman--the end of childhood, the achievement of adulthood, the binding together of the couple and their families, the promise of children (Culture Shock! Indonesia p.146). Here some neighbours construct the archway for the groom's family when they come to collect the bride.

There was a constant stream of relatives coming and going in the lead up. Our garage was taken over a few times for the extended families to meet, organise and give funds towards the wedding and reception, to which 800+ were invited.

Our house and another neighbour's were used for hair and make-up preparations starting at 4.30am..

The bride waits inside as the groom is brought to her family's home in a beautiful and moving procession of dancing and drumming. The groom's female relatives proceed to the closed door, knock, wait, knock again, and ask the family for the bride. This was the high point of the day for me.

Some of the men wore the coloured cloth of Timor province, where Cathy's father is from.

It was a big day for Soren whose job was to accompany the bride and amongst other things, keep her cool with a fluffy pink fan! He did us very proud!

Catholic church ceremony.

If you look hard enough you might see me underneath the layers of make-up and hairspray. Personally I thought I looked quite scary (though it was fun to have the pampering) but Phil assured me I looked perfectly lovely. A seamstress came to Cathy's house and measured up about 40 women for their kebaya (the thing Ibu Susanna and I are wearing) and mine turned out beautifully!

After tons of speeches and thousands of photos Soren's wedding duties are over and he can relax with neighbour buddies Gaby and Agnes. You wouldn't know it, but Reuben had a vomiting and diarrhoea bug that day. Fun!



Our garage was converted into a pumping dance hall, complete with mirror ball above the washing machine. We put the kids to bed (they miraculously slept through the incredible noise) and joined in, only to conk out after about an hour and go to bed at 10pm like a couple of old grannies. Haven't had that much fun in a looong time!