I sat with Abuba on the rocks outside my house the other day, talking for a long time. She was trying to convince me of the necessity of my future husband paying my father in cows and goats. She couldn’t believe that a man could get away without having to pay anything in livestock for me. (Were my father allowed to answer to this point, he would surely say the poor unfortunate man who marries me will certainly be paying… for life. I’ve said it now, to slight him the satisfaction. :) )
Further, she wouldn’t stand for this nonsense about me wanting to have a maximum of three children. I nearly told her about the American average of 1.5, but didn’t think I had the Lopit words in me to explain a half of a child. Again, no culture-conscious mission agency has alerted the Lopit people to the “different isn’t necessarily bad” mindset, so in this case, it was definitely bad that I didn’t want the Lopit dream--10 children. Eventually, I gave up.
She said I should come back here with my husband and 10 children, and that then our children could be friends. Talk about ripping my undecided-about-my-future-plans heart out. Ugh.
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