Mtoto ingine

Last Sunday I was invited to a friend’s house to see his new baby. I was thinking that I would just stop in, hold the baby, and then go back to the waterhole for the rest of the afternoon. I was a bit mistaken. When I arrived, I asked my friend where the baby was and I got to hold her. She is beautiful and her name is Eva. This is their fifth child. She fell asleep in my arms immediately and then after watching her sleep for about 15 minutes, I announced my intention to leave. My friend came inside and his wife told him I was going to leave and he told me that the meat is almost ready. Then I began to realize this was actually some sort of party to introduce Eva to all of his friends. So much for getting more data for the afternoon! Soon the house was full of people and I found myself eating meat with the men. I also got to try a new traditional medicine made with the roots of a particular tree boiled with the head of an animal. In this case, I think it was a goat. My neighbor Max was the preparer of the concoction and was quite proud of it. In any case, it tasted terrible and I had to fight very hard with my natural reflexes to get it down and not be rude. The soup was actually a big hit and although the women all seemed to have difficulty swallowing it and said as much, they all managed to down a full bowl. I couldn’t exactly understand why it was that they would will themselves to get through the experience. Later on in the party one of the women went into the room of men and kind of acted as an “MC” to announce what was going to take place. Then, all the women filed out of the room where the baby was. The baby had makeup on and was placed first in the arms of the oldest man in the room, and all the women screamed the reverberating squeals that I had heard in church services much to my dislike. Little Eva was passed around to every male in the room, as uncomfortable as they were with the pink bundle. The squealing persisted as the men reached into their pockets and stuffed money under Eva’s blanket. I took a picture of every single person holding the baby. It was a lot of pictures, but here is me with precious Eva. Here is her whole family: