The new baby

A couple of weeks ago we went to see Prossy's new baby girl. Prossy and I became really good friends last year when she was our housegirl at Salama Springs, but this year I hadn’t seen her because she was on maternity leave and didn’t want me to see her pregnant, for some reason. So once she “produced,” as they say here, we were invited to her little house for lunch. Eric came along too, driving us there with me on the usual little 3-legged stool.

Prossy’s husband Tony is a great guy who still works at the apartments so we see him often. They named the baby Eve after Tony’s mother. (There was some talk of naming her Theresa, but I said no! Think of the responsibility!)

The baby is beautiful and Bill and I got to hold her; I think she looks like me, but no one else agrees! The family lives in one room, with a double bed that takes up half the room; the bed now holds Tony and Prossy, the baby, and 2-year-old Mark. Six-year-old Brian sleeps on the floor on a foam pad (which is better than most Ugandan kids have; they usually sleep on a straw mat).

Tony wants to get a better job, and Eric spied a book on his shelf about computer programming, though Tony has no idea what computers even do. We talked about his using some land Prossy’s mother left her family to raise pigs or chickens or something, just to give them a boost. But Tony said he couldn’t do that because her family might think he was a greedy son-in-law, so he has to buy his own land. It’s so difficult here! There are all these cultural barriers to getting ahead.

As when we visited Prossy’s home before, the entire neighborhood of kids showed up. Mostly they liked petting Eric’s hair, which is relatively long, straight, and light-colored – all apparently very exotic things. They just about knocked him over trying to touch it!

Of course we had to eat huge lunches - you can't visit a Ugandan's home without being served food. I felt bad because Prossy did the cooking, which involves a little charcoal stove, huge amounts of matoke wrapped in banana leaves, and many trips in and out of the house. And only two weeks after she'd had the baby. But Tony helped with the dishes, making him a VERY UNUSUAL Ugandan man. We felt very honored to be invited to share the meal with them. They are good friends.