A Zambian Baby Shower

Baby Anna 

Esther holding Baby Anna 

Yesterday I attended my first Zambian baby shower.  It was held in honor of Gertrude and her new 5-day old baby, Anna.  This family of 6 lives in a 2-room home on the property and Leonard (Anna's father) is the foreman of the Zambian crew working on the hangar project.  

It was quite an honor to be invited into Gertrude's tiny home.  A few Zambian friends of Gertrude sang beautiful praise songs, Sally (FMZ missionary) shared the story of Anna from the bible with the women, and then we prayed for Anna to grow healthy and strong in the Lord.  We shared some cake and juice one of the ladies had brought along.  Gertrude even opened some sodas for us (which is a HUGE treat).  

Then we pumped Gertrude for more details of how the birth went.  I guess women world-wide like to share these stories!  Gertrude was almost turned away at the hospital because she did not bring her placenta bucket and bottle of disinfectant.  Women in Zambia are responsible for their own placentas ?! They took her anyway because her friend Esther (our guesthouse cook) promised to go and find a bucket (it was midnight).  They never offered Gertrude a bed, or even a mattress on the floor.  She walked around until the baby was ready to come and she gave birth by herself on the cold hard floor of the hospital.  Gertrude didn't tell anyone this until we started asking her the question "who got to see the baby first, was it the nurse?" 

As we were talking, Gertrude never once complained for how poorly she was treated.  Her joy in having a perfectly healthy baby trumped the sore situation.  Thank you Lord for taking care of this woman and her baby!