Burundese Baby Shower Surprise

Yesterday I had a wonderful time at my friend Anne-Yvette's baby shower. About a dozen women, and some of their children went to our friend Céline's apartment. Earlier in the day Noel, Anne-Yvette's husband had biked over to the apartment to do some work for the Saskatoon French-speaking african society (CAFS). His plan was to have bike problems, and call his wife to come over and pick him up. Luckily she did not go out (actually stayed home to have a nap), and then despite being annoyed he had not take the car in the first place, came over about 45 minutes later. Not only were we waiting, but we also had a webcam connection over MSN to her sister in France. Anne-Yvette was very surprised. At first she hid in the doorway, next she scolded us and then started to cry when she saw her sister. Apparently her sister had only just installed MSN that morning.

In a mixture of French, English and Kirundi we exchanged stories about when we had first met Anne-Yvette, and when we had learned she was pregnant. We played a memory game where 10 baby objects were displayed on the coffee table. They were unveiled for about 30 seconds and then we had to try to write as many of them as we could remember on a paper. Another game we played was to identify objects hidden in baby bottles filled with rice. One had a diaper pin, and the other had a toy baby fireman. A third game involved a ball of yarn and you had cut a piece of string to try to guess the diameter of Anne-Yvette's stomach. The last game was to be blindfolded and try to find as many safety pins as possible in a bowl filled with rice in about 30 seconds. My favourite idea was that we were asked to prepare food for a potluck, but also to make extra so that the couple could have food to freeze for when the baby comes. There was lots of good food, and even a cake that read 'happy baby shower'

I enjoyed playing with the kids. For a while four little girls were 'doing my hair' and surprisingly I left with no knots! I learned another name tradition which is that parents choose a last name for their child, and Anne-Yvette wants her child to have the last name 'Moutoni' which means something like 'honey' or 'sweet.' I was also impressed to have a demonstration of how to tie cloth around your waste to carry a baby. I am not sure if I could do it on my own, but it looked very efficient. I think I should try to spend more time around children because I still like to play.

Here is the link for the rest of the photos.