News to warm the heart

I have a dear lady who has cooked and cleaned for me since I arrived
in Epulu three months ago. Somehow our sharing of care - her being
the first person I see every morning, she is in my house all day
while I work, she cooks what she likes, I like what she cooks, she
washes my clothes, I feel good paying her..... Because of all that,
I'm attached to her, despite our barriers in language and culture.

So when she said she needed to talk yesterday morning, I became
anxious...don't know why, but I fear when people get serious like
that! She said she needed to go to the hospital to Mambasa (big town
70km away) for 2-3 weeks. She said it had to do with "enceinte" and
asked if I knew what that meant. She then started to flip through
magazines and said she'd find a picture for when I came back for
lunch.

After the daily rains came while I was having lunch at home, she came
inside and asked me if I had found out the word...I indeed had being
curious and impatient! It means "pregnant". So she told me, acted
very shy about it, despite being married with 3 young children
already. She is leaving Monday for Mambasa - not for a checkup - but
to deliver her baby!! I've been having a pregnant woman clean for me
all this time and had no idea. Either I'm very aloof or its no big
deal for her, or both.

A benefit of my "switch-hitting" French name is that Asumpta has
decided to call her baby Joel (pronounced "jho-elle") whether its a
boy or girl! I have to say I'm just so charmed by this whole thing,
feel like I'm becoming an uncle all of a sudden! It will be
interesting to see how she works with her small baby too. I imagine
she'll insist to continue work and so there'll be a mini-me
papoose-style on her back all the time. Behold the virtue of the
African woman.