Mohammed invited me to go to a wedding. I explained that at best I could only manage a long lunch "hour". He assured me it was in Stone Town and I could return when I wanted. Mohammed normally wears a collared shirt, pressed trousers, socks and shoes. I nearly didn't recognise him when he collected me on Friday lunchtime. He was wearing leather sandals, long white robe [kanzu] and a Fez shaped hat [kofia] and sun glasses. After we had walked through a few of Stone Town's narrow streets he stopped and offered me a spare kanza and kofia that he'd brought for me to wear. I took the hat and became accutely aware of the attention I seemed to be attracting as we continued our walk.

In the mosque we washed our hands then took our shoes off (wrong order?) then upstairs to a large room where about 100 men were sat on the floor in rows all eating lamb biryani with their (right) hands from big tin serving plates. We got split up (maybe to force me to speak Swahili, or maybe because we seemed to be the last to arrive). There were a couple of chaps with big video cameras which I thought at first were from the local TV station but then decided it was just for the wedding video. After an hour most of the food had been cleared away and small bottles of mineral water were liberally handed out. The guests filed back down stairs rather necessarily to wash their eating hands. I gave my thanks to the host, made my excuses and left... but not without being invited to hear some Taraab music on Monday and visit the happy couple at their home on Tuesday.. - we'll see.