A few new things today!

One of the young women who work in the guesthouse here with us gave birth to a baby girl a few days ago!  And around here, it's imperative that you go and visit and bring your greetings to the new mother and the baby.  However, the past few days I was a little under the weather and worried that I was getting this crazy eye infection that's been going around... so I asked if we could hold off on visiting the new baby. I certainly didn't want to pass anything to the poor child!

But this morning dawned bright and clear - both the weather and my eyes!  So I went over to the office to find Clara, who is our guesthouse manager, to see if we could go together to visit Mary and the Baby today.  Since it wasn't an "office" day, I wandered over in my old sweatpant capris and a t-shirt and flip flops.  I could tell exactly what Clara was thinking when she saw me - so I quickly told her, "I will go change my clothes first... then we go!"  Couldn't disrespect a new mother and baby by not dressing to the nines! 

Anyway, we all jumped in the truck - there turned out to be 6 of us going - the other women from the guesthouse and Pam, another expat who works here.  I'm never sure of where we're going and how the roads are going to be when we get to where we're going (especially with all the rain!), so I wasn't too keen on driving the giant LandCruiser.  So we all piled into the Hilux and off we went.

Actually, Mary's husband's family's house is not too far away, and it turns out there was a pretty decent road up to - but very narrow, as USAID has built their fortress walls almost right up along the edge of where the little mud huts were built!  But we made it, and found Mary and her baby happy in their little mud house.  I didn't actually take any photos of their house - didn't want to cause a scene - but I did get some photos of the new baby.

I mean, really, how cute is this child?

But she is SO tiny!  Her mother isn't the biggest person in the world, and in fact, this baby was born quite early.  She was born at home, with no doctors present, and a few weeks earlier than expected, but she seems to be doing just fine.  She is so incredibly tiny, though.  Really, one of the smallest babies I think I have ever seen!  We had a nice little visit with Mary and the baby, who just slept the ENTIRE time.  She stretched once, but basically just snoozed.  Didn't open her eyes once!  Mary said the poor little thing is confused between her days and nights - she sleeps the ENTIRE day, and screams at night.  Anyway, at least she's healthy enough to be screaming :)  The baby hasn't been officially named yet - that will be done by some uncles along with some other ceremonial things in a few weeks.

I learned a new thing about new babies last week.  The young man who works on our compound in the maintenance department also lost a baby last week. His wife (the second of two wives!) gave birth to a child last week, as well.  However, this child only lived for 2 days.  Since the baby didn't live a full week, she doesn't even have a name.  I suppose it's just one way of coping with the high infant mortality rates here.  But I don't think it makes the grief any less for parents who lose a child.

Anyway, I'm praying that this little baby girl will grow strong and healthy.  Would you pray for Mary and this little baby, too?

After our visit with Mary, it was time to go pick up my friend Ruth, who's here working for another NGO from the UK.  She's great, and I've been spending a lot of time with her lately.  She doesn't really know her way around the city very well yet, so off we went - a tour and some shopping.  It was a rather sweaty affair.  I mean really sweaty.  But we managed to find most of the things that she needed in the market, and we stopped at a few other places along the way.

I was so pleased to find white board cleaner in an Eritrean stationary shop :)  Whoo hoo!  Now my new whiteboard in the conference room can be properly cleaned!  And such a deal - only cost $2 for make in the UK white board cleaning solution!  It was a good start to the shopping day, let me tell you.

On the way back, Ruth led me to the little mini-market where she usually buys her fruits and vegetables.  I've been converted to that market now!  It's tiny, but still has a good selection of fruits and veggies (I mean, as good as the selection ever is around here!).  And it wasn't muddy and crowded and odoriferous!  People were friendly (though a few of them tried to sell me things at an inflated rate - they thought I'd just come off the plane, apparently!).  So I was pleased, and I think I will, from now on, do all my veggie shopping there.  Quick and easy and a lot less hassle than the veggie market I normally go to!  After I washed my veggies in bleachy water, I put them on the drying rack and they just looked so pretty!

These veggies and fruits should last me most of the week.  The only thing that was missing was bananas, so I'll have to walk out to the corner shop where they sell bananas sometime this week.  I just couldn't resist those veggies, so I made a huge stir fry tonight for supper with zucchini, carrot, green pepper, onion, pineapple and sweet and sour sauce.  Since I went a bit overboard on the veggies, Sean brought over some rice and we shared!  I've also invited some folks over for dinner on Monday night, so I have to figure out what to make with some of these veggies for Monday night, too... Could this cooking thing be habit-forming?