If You Learn to Put a Baby on Your Back, Also Learn to Take Her Off

December 12, 2010 at 4:39 pm | Posted in Uncategorized | 2 Comments

At the end of October my friend in village, Lamoussa, got married. It was the traditional marriage, not a legal one, and thus typically called the engagement ceremony.

I had to give a math devoir early in the morning (7-8) and afterwards I went home to grab a change of clothes for the ceremony and head over to her family courtyard. She lives right next to the church which is close by.

During the morning I had a veritable right of passage. Usually people don’t let me do things because I am viewed as incapable because I have never done it before or I shouldn’t do it because I am a guest. Thus, I was pretty thrilled to be asked to help out. It would be a very standoffish two years if I was always seen as a guest or very depressing if they think Americans are incapable of peeling cucumbers. Thank you, Monday mornings in the dining hall working salads for three hours. I can even score cucumbers.

So I spent a while prepping vegatables for the crudités with some other women. Eventually that was finished and people moved on with cleaning which I will admit I don’t know I to do burkinabe style. They clean dirt. It looks better when they do it.

I am sitting there as ladies mill about and one of the older ones restarts a favorite amongst the women: hand Kathryn a baby. I never babysat or had young cousins or neighbors. I don’t really know what to do with them. So they hand me the baby, laugh, and then continue to do work while I supposedly learn. Well, this little bundle of joy wouldn’t stop crying and somebody said the only way to make her stop would be to put her on my back. Evidentally that is literally the sleeper hold. So, giggling, my friend had me lean forward and balance this infant on my back. After a bit of finagling,she was secured and quietly sleeping. Happy photo op, happy family and friends. The nasara has a baby on her back.

It really isn’t that interesting so the women quickly went back to sweeping, scrubbing, and making kilos of rice. After about five minutes, the baby woke and could sense the foreignness in my back and started getting fussy. But the women were all busy!!

Scared this diaperless baby was crying because it had to pee, or worse, I frantically sought help and tried to flag down a woman. Most of the french speaking women had gone to marche and the older women who spoke Moore, which I don’t, were left. Thankfully panic is universally translated and Lamoussa’s dad came over to help me get the baby off.

Moral: don’t learn how to do anything without learning how to undo it.

Cheers.