So I had a baby named after me last week.
Background
As a part of our Peace Corps program, we are to attend a week long seminar called In Service Training (IST) after 3 months at post. Now that my first 3 months at post (and 6 months in country) had flown by, it was time to prep for IST. IST also happened to be taking place in my town (Ngaoundere) so I was sort of the quasi-host volunteer for my training group. One of the most important aspects of IST is for every volunteer to invite their primary counterpart. A counterpart is a host country national that will work side-by-side with us and provide support, resources, and sustainability, for our projects.
As I’ve mentioned, I have been working quite a bit with a local Microfinance institution called Credit du Sahel, and my counterpart there, David Kikgui, works predominantly with Agro-pastoral common interest groups and associations. I’m therefore paired with him to help serve this demographic. Meanwhile, David’s wife was pregnant at the time and due in about a month. However, just about as soon as he arrived at IST with me, his wife started having pains and had to be attended to. Thus, David ended up missing out on about half of IST due to his wife’s hospitalization and his second son being born.
The day his baby was born, he called me and gave me the great news. I said congratulations and whatever other appropriate thing I could think of with my 3rd grade French vocabulary. He then asked me for a first name. I was totally at a loss at the moment, so I told him I’d think about it and let him know. So, I did what I usually do in uncomfortable situations... ignore it completely
I saw him about 3 days later when he asked me again about the first name. I had then realized he actually wanted my first name for the baby, which made my job considerably easier. I of course gladly hooked him up. Thus was born Kikgui Dourine Gnassiri Cyrus (first names are listed last here, and his family name is Kikgui, same as his dad's)
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