SURPRISE BABY SHOWER

On Saturday I attended my first surprise African Baby Shower. Let me say this...it gave a whole new meaning to "CP-Time". The shower was for a friend. Her boyfriend/fiance Yow (pronounced like WOW...pregnant friends boyfriend) and some of his friends gave the shower. So my friends and I really had no knowledge of anything that was going on. He told us it should start about 8:00pm.

I went to Celeste's house so that we could ride together. We also had to get gifts on the way...yeah yeah I knowa little last minute....but we left early enough to take care of it. Anyway, we went to Target because she was registered there. We also wanted to get her something that she was really going to use and enjoy vs. surprising her and having a gift sit in the corner. CeCe got her a baby tub and various other items (including the cutest little blue tennis shoes). I went for simple and 1 gift, so I got an infant-to-toddler rocker. Good Job!!! Off to the shower. We thought we would have been right on time because CeCe spoke to Yow on the way to the shower.

We got to the apartment where the shower was being held and Danielle (another friend) was sitting by herself looking upset. Turns out she was running around and had forgotten her gift on the counter at her house. We told her to let it go and to try to have a good time. We ended up talking to each other for the remainder of the evening because we were the only Americans. Everyone else was African and was speaking their 1st language when they spoke to each other. We couldnt really be too social because we didnt understand.

After a while the house was packed with people talking, but...uhm...still no guest couple. People kept calling Yow on the phone because it was still a surprise for our friend. They didnt show up until about 10:30pm. That is certainly late to say it was a baby shower. We were starving (couldn't eat until they arrived) and really ready to go. We hung out for a while, finally got to eat, watched everyone dance to Guyanan music. It was a lot of fun to watch and everyone was really nice. The food was also pretty good. There was fruit, chicken kabobs, beef kabobs, some kind of rice, fish, salad, and something called ke-ke (like sour dough). They didnt even open the gifts....which was very interesting and a little upsetting. I like to see the expression and let the person know what I bought them. We left at about 12:30am and the party was still rolling. It was quite an experience!!!