How to Carry a Baby

Except for a brief visit back to North America, I haven’t seen a stroller since September.   One thing I’ve learned this year is that there are so many other ways to move around with a baby – the sidesling, the backstrap, frontfold, arms and feet in/out/together/apart etc.

1.  In Todos Santos, Guatemala:

2.  In Muhanga, Rwanda

3.  In Dar Es Salaam, Tanzania

Riding chicken buses in Guatemala, I was often startled when the pack slung across my seatmate’s back would start squirming or crying.  On one sad ride, the woman next to me was travelling with two young kids and a baby  She had 5 more kids at home (and 2 that had passed away), and was headed to the market trying to sell a bit of corn.  Terrified because this year’s crop was failing, she didn’t think she could continue to feed the family. She was really surprised that I didn’t have babies.  In our broken Spanish (her first language is  Mam), she asked me if there was some way she could stop having babies, since she was sure another baby in the house would die, and possibly kill her too. Heartbreaking.

In Tanzania so far, my experience has been lighter.  As I’ve noted before, riding the bus is always an adventure.   The other day Mama Rita (the Kiva Coordinator at Tujijenge who has been patiently accompanying me on endless trips around the city to do Kiva borrower verifications), described my contorted position on an overly crowded dallah-dallah: “You were squished flatter than a chapati and folded so much that I almost couldn’t see you”.   In such an environment, passengers lucky enough to have a seat will never give them up for anybody.  Moms understand this, and resort to thrusting their babies on other people’s laps, for safe-keeping during rocky rides.  People get around however they can, and this is a world away from Westboro where 4 wheel drive strollers cruise smooth sidewalks!