Baby Party

So I don’t know if I blogged about my new host-niece yet, but my host sister Fadma gave birth to the tiniest sweetest little girl a few weeks ago.  I am so proud of her so far for various reasons.  She gave birth in a clinic (instead of at home), she already took Maria for vaccinations, and she is only breast-feeding her. 

So this past Sunday was the Baby Party!  I’m not exactly sure if the party is for the naming of the baby, or a religious event, or just to celebrate that the baby was born.  Anyway, I got all dressed up like the girls here, and celebrated with my village!  Although I am still not a fan of parties here that last past 4am, this one wasn’t too bad.  The actual celebration was the same (as far as I could tell) as a wedding celebration.  Fadma came onto the roof to say hello to the guests once, but no one ever saw the baby.

At 4am, as I was nodding off and dreaming of my house (only like 100 meters away!), my host mom, Ijjou, asked if I wanted to go home.  I was planning on staying until the end, since it was a party thrown by my host family, but sleep sounded like a great idea.  Right away, Ijjou called down to Omar and Mustafa (2 of my host brothers) asking them to walk me home.  And as I started to leave my host sister, Najma told me the same thing.  Make sure Omar or Mustafa walks you home.  Both host brothers offered to leave the party and walk me home without complaint.  

Really, that simple act of kindness meant a lot to me.  No matter how long I live in my village, I will never truly be a member of my host family.  But they treat me as one anyway.  And living so many thousands of miles from my family really stinks sometimes, so knowing that I have a loving family here makes life a lot easier.  

Congratulations Fadma!