bobo

Tonight I went to Enrichment for our RS and there is a woman in our ward from Johannesburg, South Africa and she is moving back to Africa. Because of all this, she was our "activity" tonight. She dressed up in her tribal clothes and cooked authentic food, which luckily I didn't eat the meat stuff because later she informed us it was cow intestines. SICK. I want to know where in the world she even found intestines to cook for us. Good thing I didn't eat it because I surely would have barfed, or at least started gagging in her presence, which I'm sure would have offended her. She told us all this interesting stuff about how when she met her now husband, he had to tell his family (who was from a different tribe than hers) that he wanted to marry her. Then they tell all the extended family about this "deal." They then write a letter to Bobo's family (that is some shortened version of her maiden name) which apparently takes a long time to receive because their mail is even slower than ours. Her family then gets together and agrees on a date that they can all be present to meet the future in-laws (for her in particular, the husband's family asked to talk to Bobo's before January and Bobo's family couldn't all get together until March). If the husband's family shows up late, they are turned away and asked to return later (and they were 10 minutes late), and I'm assuming this is not a 5 minute walk. So they show up next Sunday to talk to her mom (her dad has died) although her mom cannot talk to the men not from her family directly so she has to talk through her uncle to them. She tells them no twice because she wants Bobo to finish school. After much begging, her mother agrees to let her marry and THEN the families have to agree on a dowry price. I didn't know they still did this. Since she was from the city and didn't have or want any cows and her husband's family didn't have any cows, they exchange money instead. So if a cow costs, let's say $100, then they say she's 4 cows, they need to pay $400. Bobo was worth 32 cows!! She told us that this was on the higher end for "price tags." Which made me wonder how many cows Joe would have paid for me, or if he would ever ask for a refund!! She said after all of the debating over the dowry price and all that I mentioned above, she didn't get married until a year later! And during this time period, you aren't supposed to see your fiance, but she said she sneaked and met up with him at the mall. Which totally made me laugh because that sounds like a 14 year old. But then after getting married, since she switched tribes, her mother-in-law (b/c it's tradition) changed her name. Not just her last name either. Her entire name. And she said her mother-in-law didn't like her and told her that before they got married just because she was from a different tribe. She also said that people would call her by her new name and she didn't realize they were calling for her for a while -- pretty funny. I asked her if her new name meant, "I hate people" or "Crossed-eyed woman" because her MIL hated her. The answer was no :) After she got married, she had to move in with her MIL for 3 months, in a separate house than her husband because her MIL had to "train" her. She called it a Boot Camp where she learned all their routines and how things were done. Crazy, isn't it? She told us more interesting things, but I'm tired of typing.

Finally, Boston is getting sick. At least when I was putting his pajama's on his skin felt pretty hot. I'm SURE that it is from putting everything he finds in his mouth. Kelly said that her little girl, Elle, does this too. She said she'll even eat boogers! haha :) I laughed when I read that because although Boston does not pick his nose yet, he has discovered that he gets a reaction when he shoves his finger up his nose. Yes, he truly jams it up there. And then, just for kicks, he leaves it there while he stares at you laughing because you're telling him to stop. If you pull his finger out, I swear he jams it up there further. He might just puncture his brain with the speed and ferocity that he puts it in there. I guess a finger is better than a Cheerio. Or the stuffing/padding from a rip in your car seat. Apparently I did that when I was little. Oh, and some Nerds too. A treat for later maybe :)