On more than one occasion during the week while Mike and Becky were gone, I found reason to walk into the kitchen and turn on the light after dark -- something I have never done previously. Each time, I was greeted by half a dozen cockroaches scurrying across the dining room table. (Ugh. Sometimes I'd just prefer not to know. Oh well.) The problem is not slovenliness in the cleaning department, but the shoddy craftsmanship of the table (sadly typical in carpentry here) so that the ravages of a family of 6 on a table already suffering from pocks, holes and cracks creates happy hunting ground for creepy crawlies. Surviving in Cameroon requires a phlegmatic approach to insects.
I awoke this morning to the sound of my phone ringing. It wasn't the first time the bells and whistles had attempted to pull me from my slumber so I knew it meant one of two things: either I'd overslept and my boss was calling to find out where I was, or the much anticipated baby had announced her intention to make an entrance. Felicitously, it was the latter. After a lightning fast labour lasting a mere 2 hours, Mai-Anh Esther made her entry into the world at 8:35 am (the preferred interval for Braun babies. Jon, Rebecca, and I were all born between 8 and 8:30 in the morning while Lien was born around 8 in the evening.) She is a hearty 9 lbs 2 oz and 20 1/2 inches long. "She's already got more hair than Lien does!" was the first comment made by both Jon and me. She's a perfectly contented, sleepy little girl who's hardly opened her eyes once, even to let mommy see them, and she had no objection to being passed from person to person all evening, nor to Li...
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