Peter and his new baby

This past week we went over to Peter’s (Last years Concordia Scholar) house for dinner. We were warmly ushered in by him and his sister and offered the best mango passion fruit juice. He asked how classes we going. After about ten to fifteen minuets of small talk he showed us his wedding pictures and the picture of his wife. He apologized that his wife would not be able to make it to dinner because she was at the hospital. We got really concerned and asked him if everything was okay and he calmly answered like he said it everyday, “Yeah she’s okay, she just had a baby.” We were all excited and couldn’t believe how calm he had been telling us. I knew that his wife had been pregnant because she had been in and out of the hospital for the past month, but I did not want to ask too many questions because I know that it is not something that is usually talked about. Peter and his wife had a baby boy!
The next question we had for Peter was, “What are you doing here?” He just became a father, his wife and child are still in the hospital and he is at home entertaining guests. Peter told us that his wife still wanted us to come over to their house for dinner since the date and time had already been set. Peter’s sisters prepared the dinner for us and Peter came home for a little bit to greet us and then during dinner he left again for the hospital. This really enforced the idea of Tanzanian hospitality where the guest is always important. I do not think I would be able to do the same thing. I would want my husband next to my side regardless of who was coming to visit.
Peter and his wife have been married a little under a year. They were married in December and he left in January or February to go study at Concordia. According to Peter he did “good work,” and now he has fulfilled the social traditions expected of him. It was so interesting to hear this because it was so blunt, but also probably very true. Traditions put a large emphasis on getting married and having children, especially boys. We are hoping to make a trip back down to their house later this week to go visit the baby, but we need to wait a little bit because she had a caesarian birth and is taking some time to recover.