Oh Happy (Ladies) Day!

This post is a little old...we have Internet issues this week, so I am a bit behind.  Written March 8th.

Today is a very special day in this country and around the world. I can’t say to what extent it is practiced around the world, but here, especially for women in the development and NGO communities, it is a big day. 

International Women’s Day is a day to celebrate…women.  So, today, the men of the office made special food for the women and gave us gifts (hideous fabric for a dress that the women actually picked out themselves and were SO excited about). The women soaked it in.  Given the status of women in this country and context, it may have been completely and utterly superficial, but the women seemed to enjoy it. 

I wore my wedding outfit and Little t and I headed over to the office quickly before lunch.  I was quickly running back home to get plates after the khAla who cooks over there was panicked that she didn’t have enough to serve on. 

So, I finally got in the room and went down the line greeting all of the women.  Sat down in ‘my’ seat in the corner and tried to get Little t situated before the food came. I had planned on feeding him before I went, but ran out of time, and knew that we were going to be in trouble. It simply means that he makes every attempt to crawl across the tablecloth laid out on the floor to get whatever food he can and stuff his face with it…awesome.  I have him a big hunk of naan and that kept him happy for a few minutes while I tried to eat frantically once the food arrived. 

Shortly after food arrived, Little t wanders a little ways down the cushion and gets mysteriously quiet…the momma-urge tells me to find out what he is doing. Trying to cut his nose off is what he was doing! He had found a giant pair of scissors and was rapidly opening and closing them dangerously close to his nostrils.  I try to be a nice person and a reasonable mom, but would like my child to have both of his eyes well into adulthood. So made an effort to take the scissors away.  Tortured screams of protest from the wee one caused all of the women to ask me accusingly what I had done to him (it is bad if your kids cry/throw fits like that). I told them I had taken the scissors away from him. They ‘tsked’ me under their breath and then kept eating. I bit my tongue from telling them that they are more than welcome to let their 15 month old jab random body parts with scissors, but I would rather listen to mine scream than watch him bleed.  I nursed him for a few minutes to try and calm him down and then distracted him with his naan and went back to eating myself.

Little t was playing well and munching on his naan until he saw his friend I (sitting next to us) eating some meat and decided he needed some. I proceeded to have him small bits of meat, which he did very well with and seemed to like. I prayed the whole time that it wouldn’t make him sick, but was also happy that he was eating it and seemed to like it.  My friend E finished eating and took Little t for me while I tried to finish up. 

Meanwhile the women were yukking it up, making jokes about demanding more food because this was Women’s Day and today they were the bosses, etc.  Some subtle hints were made that the food should have been more and should have been better for such a “special occasion”. Not so subtle hints were made by their boss E that they were quite healthy and well-fed and could maybe use their day of power for something more productive…They decided that they would tell their husbands to clean the house, take care of the kids, etc.  Each time they said this, they pumped their fists in the air saying, “I will tell my husband to clean the house, because today is Woman’s Day and I AM A WOMAN!” Then the rest of them would howl and squeal and laugh!  It was pretty funny. 

During their empowerment speeches, Little t had climbed back on my lap and was eating some pieces of orange. He usually just sucks the juice out of them, but today seemed to be doing well eating the whole piece…or so I thought.  Suddenly, halfway through the orange, and midway through empowerment speeches (and talk about make-up and clothing choices for tomorrow night’s wedding), Little t started choking.  I started thumping him on the back and he was still choking.  I thumped harder and he started turning red and gagging.  Everyone got a little worked up and started stating the obvious (he’s choking, something’s wrong). I doubt he timed it this way, but as soon as all…and I mean all…eyes in the room were on him, Little t threw up all over himself, me, the cushion we were sitting on and the tablecloth in front of us.  Two rather large pieces of orange that must have been stuck in his throat came up with everything else and I realized I had not been paying enough attention. He had not been the highly successful orange eater I thought he was. 

Funny thing of the story…true to women of here and true to women who have multiple children…they weren’t fazed at all. There was maybe a 2 second hiccup in the conversation and then Aziza went on to complete her sentence about her planned outfit for the next night.  This might sound rude, but it actually made me really happy because it showed me that they weren’t shocked or offended or awkward about the situation…it just happened and then was over.  Little t took a drink and then went right back to playing.  We stripped his dirty clothes off and he ran around for the next few minutes playing while I sopped up orange colored vomit from pretty much every surface within arm’s reach. 

The silver lining in the clouds?  Little t may or may not have…okay it is a may…ingested several healthy handfuls of dirt earlier that morning. He just would not stop putting it in his mouth…so I am hoping he puked up some of those germs as well.   

Ladies day was a hit – the women got their little power trip, Little t only puked all over everything, and I got more ugly fabric than any girl could ever ask for!  Happy Ladies Day!