Wedding Crasher

I stood in the yard in front of the church while the crowd began to gather. Sirens blared in the distance. For once in my life I felt tall next to the young Indonesian women who surrounded me. I could see the tops of their heads without straining.

People came from every direction as the procession approached. A red carpet lined the path to the church door. Police stood by as news cameras rolled and people snapped photos from their cell phones. Life in Balige, a rural town in Indonesia’s North Sumatra province, rarely reached this level of excitement.