Baby Andrea

The Lopit don’t name their babies for at least three days after their born. But the suspense over what Cecelia’s new baby’s name will be is over.
She named it “Un-drey-yew.”
Which, umm, is Lopit for the German pronunciation of Andrea (“un-drey-uh”).
Andrea.
That’s me.
I should tell you that if someone came here to Lopit and asked for “Andi,” you’d be given only blank stares, even if you spoke perfect Lopit. The Lopit don’t know me as Andi—largely only as Ibeja. Only a few know Andrea, and they rarely use it.
But, anyway, Cecelia and the ladies got a hold of Andrea, and the baby will heretofore be known as such.
Though I did confide to Cecelia that my mother calls me “Andi,” which she liked a lot, so we’ll see.
I went to visit yesterday and the little one is doing well. I held her for a while—she took the opportunity to pee on me. (All Lopit babies seem to enjoy doing that to the white girls.)
Cecelia took the opportunity to tell Idiongo (Andrea’s older sister) that I had come to take the baby home with me, that I was now the mother. And, in fact, I was going to take Oluwaha (her brother), Idiongo and Andrea with me back to Kenya, where I live. (Recall that the USA is actually in Kenya, according to Lopit logic.) And we’d all live there together. Idiongo was admittedly afraid, until Cecelia told her she’d go, too, and Iris would be there. Idiongo loves Iris, Cecelia tells me, because Iris gave her clothes and shoes. At that, Idiongo was read to hop on a plane—baby sister, big brother and all, and come live with me in the United States.
I hope Andrea grows up to be as funny as Cecelia is.