Cute Babies and Praying dogs

On Monday night, each travelling consultant was to spend sometime with their local counterparts and their families. My co-consultant, Francis, took me to meet his family. I met his 2 sons and daughter and was treated to a lovely home cooked meal; daal, fried fish, curry chicken,rossum ( white rice with pepper water) and all kinds of goodies. During the meal, we were waited on hand and foot by his wife, who according to tradition demonstrates hospitality by doing this and waiting until the guest is done eating before she eats. I was struck by how much effort she had gone to just to make me feel welcome and made a mental note to self to double check that I also make sure that people feel welcomed in my presence.

The highlight of the evening came when after dinner, their huge black lab, Rambo, was allowed to join everyone and came in wagging his extremely strong tail very vigorously; I know because I got a few good whacks from his tail! Anyway, it was time to leave and we decided to say a blessing over each other and to my surprise Rambo quieted down, went behind the sofa and stood stock still. Apparently he understands the importance of the family blessing time and does that every single time they pray! Almost like clockwork, once prayer was over, he came out to socialize again. It was the funniest thing to watch.

My client also runs a home for abandoned babies and I met the three kids they currently have in their care. Looking at them I wondered how anyone could close themselves off from such vibrant lives! Apparently in some villages here, there are still a lot of beliefs practiced that either attach negativity to a girl child, or prevalent ignorance that allows a village witch doctor to convince a child’s family that he will bring bad luck to the family and therefore should be killed at birth! Thank God for people who can rescue these kids and give them a life! Looking at their little faces, I can’t help rooting for them and praying that they have a long and fulfilling life.