A Funeral This Week

As you come into our neighbourhood, this is what you see.  It is the main entrance (of two entrances) to our neighbourhood - the one we would come to as we come home from school / work.  The guardhouse is on the right (little blue shack).  This is where Joe works, the daytime guard.  Sad to say, I don't know the name of the night guard, though I wave at him regularly.  There is no air conditioning in that hut; I'm sure it is like an oven most of the time.  Usually Joe and his night coworker sit outside in the shade, hopefully to catch a breeze

This is a closer view.  The barrel on the speed bump serves the purpose of separating the two lanes of traffic coming opposite directions and also helping to slow cars down because it is pretty narrow.  The street to the left leads to our house (after turning a couple more corners - it's like a maze in there).  Also on that street to the left is where the chicken (see previous post) and formerly the dogs live.  The blue tent in the center of the picture is not usual

   

Here is a close up of the blue tent.  You can see that it takes up half the road and includes chairs and tables underneath.  The street light is on because it was pretty early in the morning (about 7:30 am)

It is outside someone's house - a family member has died.  This is common to have funeral receptions this way and it stays like this for 2 to 3 days.  I think the box in the middle is an air conditioning unit and the tables are set with stacked cups.  You can see banners on the left (they are also on the right side) that express condolences from various companies mostly

Very large flower arrangements line the fence around the house (front and sides).  This set up for the funeral is a little more elaborate than most - larger and more flower arrangements, more banners, and more tables.  In the background you can see one of the ladies (white shirt) arriving at the home to help prepare the food for the reception