What's your name?

Yesterday Herma and I went to a Naming Ceremony. This is when a baby that is about a week old officially received its name. It was an amazing experience, this lady is the new mother. She was all decked out in her best cloths with her fanciest jewelry and REALLY fancy hair and make up.

I wish I could have taken some video because this was an amazing experience. It is only women and everyone comes dressed up in bright colors, complete with head wraps. Here I am with one of my new friends Nia, she is to the left of me. This is an example of how all the women were dressed. I felt a little foolish without a head peice (a head wrap served the same purpose as a wedding ring). There were about 100 women and it was LOUD. Traditionally, you bring gifts to something like this (kind of like a baby shower?). I guess it's kind of like the states in that most people bring gift cards AKA cash. After a while these two women got up and started chanting in a sing song way as they counted in front of everyone how much cash the new mother received. THEN...they all started singing and clamping and two different women got up in the middle of the circle and started dancing, it kind of looked a lot like a booty shake. It was a really cool experience and I am SO glad I got to participate in it a little bit. And I am SO glad I bought myself a boo-boo (traditional women's dress) that I could wear to the event.
Here I am goofing around with another young mother, you can barely see the baby tied to her back. As you can see, no baby tied to my back, they women thought this was pretty funny. To hear these women laugh is a great thing, they smile big and laugh loud, it's beautiful.

More to come.