Well, of course, we already knew it was a boy. and bless hadi's heart, she went a week past the date the doctor said he wanted to induce (two weeks past the actual due date). of course, for all her talk of a natural birth, she ended up having an epidural. i had explained to her what it was when we visited and probably a good thing i did, or else she might have tried to say no.

hadi said the labor was under ten hours, not bad, not bad, of course (as we found out when we visited her the week before last) this was her second pregnancy.

it's the custom, i believe muslim custom, tho it very well could be african custom, to host a party on the baby's seventh day. as they usually do for just about everything they celebrate, a lamb sacrificed his life for the occassion (literally sacrificed).

here is monsieur moudi---seven days old





i have to say tho, it was a cool group, cool as in cold. the "family and friends" were a bit stand-offish to us. we felt like aliens and they looked at us as such, even tho hadi and ibrihama did try to make us feel welcome and comfortable. mark, who can usually crack any social group, even had trouble. it could have possibly been a language barrier, but i know for a fact the one woman there spoke excellent english as i had spoken to her on the phone before when hadi was still living with us. her husband however was extremely nice and spent time talking with us, and ibrihama letting him know that mark "is my nigger" ibrihama's friend chek (pronounced sheck) didn't stay very long and mark felt it was because chek is from senagal, while all the others in attendance were from niger. i also have to imagine that chek's three hundred pound west virginia white trash wife also didn't feel too comfortable there(oh, i'm hateful, i know, but i don't like that girl)

the women wore beautiful blue dresses. omg, the blue was amazing and they had intricate needle designs both in the color of the fabric and gold thread. i would have snapped a picture, but as i said, i didn't feel completely comfortable in their company and i some how felt like i might appear as one of those white tourists who snaps "native life"

cc had a little problem with the cultural "restrictions" she went outside with mark, where the rest of the men were, and mark nodded her back inside with the women. she didn't much like that, and she admitted later that she was extremely intimidated by jamilia. once the food was done, the women did move outside, but they sat off to the side and didn't "interact" with the men.

and the food, oh my goodness, the food was yummy. well, i didn't eat the lamb, because i have a problem getting the fuzzy cute animal out of my head to eat it. thank god they didn't pull out the head. i have to think that because I, especially, was coming over and cc too, that ibihama put the brakes on that. lol...he knows it freaks me out.

but they made these wonderful "egg roll" thingys. stuffed with beef, green pepper, carrots and what was either some sort of thin noodle, or possibly shredded cabbage, wrapped in rice paper and fried. yummy yummy! they had a soy sauce (but it's not asian soy, it's a middle-eastern version) and dijon mustard to dip them in. they gave us some to bring home and i ate mine with spicy brown mustard which made them taste exactly like the german egg rolls i used to get at my favorite german restaurant back home (made with beef, carrots, and kraut--served with horseradish mustard...*sigh* the restaurant is no longer there.) they also had a slightly sweet, (and very fattening) fried bread. again, yummy yummy!

anyway, here is the beautiful new mommy, hadiza (hadi--the sweetest person i've ever met. the little "tattoos" under her eyes were given to her as a baby and supposedly are to let others know who her people are. but of all the africans i've met---and i've met a lot, from several different countries---she's the only one i've seen these sorts of marks)





her dress was quite striking also, in burnt oranges and maroons(with little touches of pink).

we didn't stay but a few hours. it was stiffling hot in there (really hot outside). ibrihama had the air-conditioner on and kept complaining about how hot it was. we ruined him when he lived with us...that's what'll happen to an african when they live in 68 degrees year round (the temperature my iceback likes his house---you can take the boy out of canada, but not canada out of the boy).

well, that's it for me. i have less than a week to get organized for my trip home, so i've lots to do.

outtie!