Village Funerals

A couple of weeks ago I had to go to a funeral in my village. It was for the mother of a farmer that I work with a lot. Funerals in the village are compulsory for all of the villagers.
The way it works is that upon arrival, the men walk up to the door of the house that the funeral is taking place at. The house is usually that one that the dead lived in. So the men approach, then we kneel at the door for a minute or so and then retreat to the area where all of them men are sitting someplace in the yard. The women are gathered in the house and are wailing.
So us men sit around talking while a few guys work on building the coffin. In the village, preparing coffins ahead of time is a bad omen, so they just build them as the funerals take place. It was a pretty eerie combination of sounds that I sat there listening to. Across the street at the house the women were all screaming, crying, and wailing, and then there was just the sound of hammering and planing of wood that was combined with the droning of conversation.
Upon completion of the coffin, the men take it into the house to put the body inside. The wailing increases exponentially at this point. After 5 or 10 minutes, the top is hammered on and then some guys pick up the casket and the whole procession follows to the cemetary. The whole time people are crying and screaming. Some people are so distraught they need to be carried to the cemetary because their legs won't allow them to continue walking. After lowering the casket, about 10 men rush to push the dirt in before the family tries to crawl into the hole in the ground. After that, a few prayers are spoken and then everyone goes home.
About 5 days later, I had to go to the funeral of the granddaughter of the agricultural officer I work with in my village. It was mostly the same except there was much more singing at that one.