IT'S A BOY

It’s official! The count has gone from 17 to 18 next door with the arrival of baby Ibrahim. My neighbor Ieassatou had her baby yesterday evening and both baby and mom are doing great. As I’m writing this I’ve actually just come from visiting and congratulating the family and there is a contagious sense of excitement in the air. Now seeing as how babies have never really been my forte and in the past I’ve lived by the general rule of thumb, "If you can’t hold your head up, I can’t hold you,” I had intended to make it a short and sweet visit, but I should have know better, because nothing in Cameroon is short and sweet.

I entered the compound, greeted the husband, and gave him some soap (the traditional baby gift in these parts). Then someone grabbed my hand, led me past an assortment of distant relatives, and next thing I know I’m sitting on the bed with the baby in my arms. Now I’m definitely not the baby whisperer, but I did manage not to drop him or make him start crying (and he didn’t suck out my soul) so I would say overall it was a good visit.

In other news I now have my garden up and running (by that I mean there’s dirt and there are seeds in the dirt). It’s just the beginning of rainy season so everyone is scrambling to get their farms ready and I thought, well it couldn’t hurt to try. Normally my thumb is more brown than green, but from what I hear things grow really well in this part of the country, so what the heck I went for it! I enlisted the help of Kerry and Hadison (my 6 and 9 year old neighbors) and in about an hour the three of us had dugout a little garden in the back yard. I planted tomatoes, carrots, and green bell peppers, so now all I have to do is water and wait. Keep your fingers crossed that something pops up.

Nothing else all that exciting has been going on. I’ve been working en brousse (in the bush) this week talking about why vaccinations are important, but the normal nurse I work with is out so I’m working with someone else and I’m not exactly his biggest fan. Needless to say it hasn’t been the high point of my week. Hope all is well back in the states.

Until next time.

Kate

P.S. Thanks Adele and Dave for the Christmas card and ornament. They just arrived and absolutely made my day J