Carrying the baby
The other day, I spent the whole day at the office. For lunch on such days, we run across the street to the South African grocery store to buy a la carte items. That day I didn't bring my baby carrier but I did have a capulana with me. Mozambican women use capulanas for a lot of things, but one of the chief purposes of them are to carry their children. So far I haven't carried Nadia around using a capulana, but decided to try it that day.

One of the tricks of the trade is getting the baby on your back and then arranging the fabric well enough to create a little seat for the child and eventually tying it tight enough. So I asked our (male) office administrator to help me and off I went to the store. No sooner had I walked through the parking lot of the office, then several teenage girls came over to me and told me it wasn't tied right. So on the side of the road, two girls helped me re-tie the capulana so Nadia would be secure. While I walked across the road, the women selling fruit told me that I should move her from my back to my front. By that time, because she's not used to being in a capulana, hshe ad wiggled her way out of it and I ended up using it more as a half sling to help me carry her on my hip.

When I went through the check out, Nadia was fussy. The checker told me I should take her hat off because that was causing her discomfort. I replied that she was hungry (suspecting hunger and dislike of the capulana) because she doesn't normally cry when she has a hat on. I felt like saying, but didn't "You're saying my baby doesn't like her springtime hat when I see numerous babies dressed for snow in 90 degree, 120% humidity? And my baby doesn't like her hat?" As I crossed the street, the women fruit sellers once again told me that I wasn't carrying her right.

Today I went out with her in my baby carrier. No one commented about the way I carried her and I didn't fear dropping her. I think I'll practice carrying her in a capulana at home with my housekeeper teaching me how to tie before venturing out again.