Eager Learners

We have been finishing up teaching on mother/child care in several of our villages. In this particular one it’s been exciting because the women have had lots of hands on experience. When we taught about mudstoves and did a demonstration with them, they got busy and have nearly 2 mudstoves in each of their 6 homes! We taught on weaning children and did a food demonstration. They taught the women and the women practiced it some. Then we went on to the last section of our teaching which is on caring for pregnant women and doing clean and safe deliveries.
Here again some of them have had hands-on experience for themselves. Three of the six women were pregnant. Two have delivered already. One of the traditions we have been trying to reverse is that women have been taught they must wait until the ‘milk comes in’ and then the milk has to be tested. In the meantime the baby and the mother suffer. Sometimes causing death. More and more women are learning and seeing the difference in the babies when the start nursing them the day of delivery.
That’s what one of our TBAs (trained birthing attendant) said. Her baby wasn’t vomiting or having diarrhea. She was ‘clean’. The mother is all smiles. Here are a few pictures of the teaching session on breast feeding. These pictures were taken by a real photographer.

A TYPICAL SATURDAY

This Saturday I woke up early to the alarm as there was a friend’s baby’s naming ceremony. Normally on the eighth day the new born is treated to a great ceremony usually beginning at 7 a.m. Lots of family and friends will come. The men sit in the courtyard and the women gather in the patio of the house. The pastor chooses the Scripture based on the name the parents have chosen. Most Christians give their children Bible names. When the name has been given, the pastor takes the baby and prays for him/her and the family. Then the food is served, rice or corn mush and sauce, on big platters for everyone to enjoy together. The women go inside the house and greet the mother and give a gift. For the Hausa women they keep track of all the monetary gifts given. When the “giver” has a baby the mother will double the amount of the gift that she received. This goes on to a certain point and then drops back to a reasonable amount. Hmm, very interesting.

Back home around 8 a.m. I greet my gardener and mention that we’re going to plant seeds in the garden today. He’s been working on 4 plots (4 feet by 12 feet) that I had him dig out to a depth of 18 inches. He filled them with dry grassy stuff, dirt, grassy stuff, and dirt then planted beans. Once the beans were 12 inches tall he dug them under, added manure and worked everything in the improved soil. So we planted one plot of corn, and one row of green beans. Then on mounds we planted cucumbers and cantaloupe.

It was also bread baking day. So with my trusty mixer I made some nice high protein brown bread. It’s good to time the bread to be out of the oven to enjoy for lunch, which I did and Cali too. She enjoys the crust, actually she’d enjoy any part of the bread.

The weekends are great for taking naps, catching up with sleep missed during the week. Our internet was down for the day, so I avoided the computer (always good to have a forced break from it). We have a lovely swimming pool that’s so refreshing to dip into. Others come and we enjoy chatting and bird watching. We have some new ones in town, Gray-headed Kingfishers. One of my friends husband found and brought home a Marsh Owl. We have lots of pigeons, doves, weaver birds, Senegal rollers, and other unidentified ones too. They like to come to the pool for a sip. Cali does too. She likes to sit at the edge with one or both paws in the pool and lap up some water. After the swim and a shower I went to my tailor with some material to make a needed outfit. It’s a simple top and will cost only $3.

Silke invited me over for a video in the evening; I offered to make a pizza. I have lots of pizza sauce in the freezer, so it’s easy to throw together a pizza. I have some green peppers and mushrooms frozen, put that together with canned chicken hot dogsJ, and pineapple. Pretty tasty!!! We sat down with the pizza to watch the video and there’s a power cut. We enjoy the pizza by candlelight and wait patiently for 30 minutes for the power to come back on. Last evenings video was “Fried Green Tomatoes”. Jacquie pops in and finishes watching with us. There you have a typical Saturday.