It's a Boy!

My woman aka my sister-in-law gave birth to a beautiful baby boy! On August 8, at 5am, she started having intense contractions and went to the hospital to give birth (YAY! Hospital!). It was day 6 of Ramadan, so I was told that they were taking her to the hospital when we were eating our pre-dawn meal. That afternoon, I visited her in the hospital, 30 minutes after she gave birth and was promptly handed the baby. He was so small and so young; it was an experience. I loved it!

This is the first time that my family has had a big event. All the other births and marriages occurred prior to my arrival. I get to be a part of the baptism! At baptisms, I usually give a little bit of money and a bar of soap, but since this was my sister, I went all out. I bought her 4 meters of fabric for her and 2 meters of fabric to wrap her baby in. It was so exciting and I told every person at lummo that this was for the new baby. The baptism occurs a week after the baby is born and it is at that point that they shave the baby's head and give it a name. They usually determine the name beforehand and that was the case in my family. They named the baby Sajo, after my brother who passed away in December (you may remember the depressing post). That name will now be associated with something happy, rather than the tragedy that occurred.

It was so much fun (but kinda boring) hanging out with my sister and her newborn. The newborn isn't allowed to be taken out of the hut until after the baptism. Since it's Ramadan, I'm super bored and spent everyday hanging out with baby and momma. The baptism happened on the 15th and my closest neighbor, Katie came to celebrate with my family. It was chill, but anticlimactic due to Ramadan- there was no dancing and fun drumming. But there is a new baby in the fam and I can't wait to watch him grow up.

I don't know what I'm going to do when I get back to the states and don't have a baby to play with. Seriously. Amadou is definitely my favorite person in village and I've watched him grow up and now there's Sajo. I love playing with babies, maybe I'll nanny again when I return home.

Peace & Babies