Saturday's Baby Shower
As tradition expects... the majority of the guests were fashionable late. Being an hour late we thought we'd be "on time" (I think it's an African thing to be late for an event no matter where in the world you live). Hardly anyone had arrived. The hosts; aunt Ella and aunt Mona had invited us. It was fun. There was food, music, embarrassing questions for the expecting mother (a skinny lady with big tummy). It was nothing like a normal baby shower. There were no silly games, there were no kids allowed during certain parts of the shower.

Bubu had the nerve to ask the mother, "how does one get a boy?" and I won't go into some of the answers some guests gave to help out the blushing mother-to-be. The most obvious question was, "how did it happen?" That's a good question considering the you usually forget that someone had to have sex before a cute little baby come out. There was BQ and her sidekick Bubu. They were the loudest mouths at the shower.

There was also a very informative session where the guests (mothers and non-mothers) gave the expecting mother some advice on what to expect, things to consider, not to consider. I didn't know African mothers went through post partum depression. I guess I never thought about it. Back home in Ghana, I don't think I ever heard it mentioned in so many words. Maybe it's because there usually is a better support system. Just like the expecting mother, you usually have your mother or some other female mother figure to help you out during pregnancy and for the critical months afterwards. Thus the mother faces less stress which makes post partum depression less obvious.. but it does happen especially since midwives know to warn the mother about the symptoms ahead of time.
After that she opened her gifts.. and there were a lot I might add. Then there was edzeban... jollof, wakye, nkontomire froyeh, light soup, fish, chicken, corn, shito, banku, cake... etc.

Africans, especially Ghanaians will look for an excuse to party. After the shower was over, there was a little party and the men were allowed to join in. DJ Chaka (the unofficial African DJ for the city) was there to DJ for us. The expecting mother's husband came by to party with her. I tell you, I've never seen a white man who can move like that. He can shake his booty all the way to the floor. You should have seen Bubu shaking her thing, and Chakaman. Oh Chakaman can really booggy down. Then there was this other pregnant woman at the party. I felt for her baby. She was moving like the soul train dancers. I'm suprised the baby didn't just plop out. We left soon after. If we hadn't, we'd have been there till 2 in the morning for there is "FROM" and no "TILL" for an African event.