With a baby, nothing usually remains the sam

Dear nephew Milambo

GREETINGS from this land where soon it will be necessary to have a boat in every household.

My dear son, I hope by the grace of Limatunda you and your family are doing fine, and all the people in my beloved Ukumbisiganga.

I hope that the protection of Likube and the watchful eyes of our Nyamwezi ancestors led by our able Chief Mirambo has been bestowed unto all of you.

Here in the city things are not bad, apart from the constant rains which are now beginning to get on my nerves, because one minute the sun is hot and the next it is raining cats and dogs.

As I am writing this, it has just stopped raining heavily a few minutes ago, but the sun is shining as if it is angry for being put in the backseat.

Last night there are several families which had to seek shelter at a local church after their houses were submerged by floods due to heavy rain which lasted just four hours.

My dear son, you should have seen the situation at that time, because had it not been for the quick legs of several young men, there was a small girl who was about to be swept away.

You see son, all these years those houses have been safe even if it rained the whole day, but what happened is that there is a certain fellow who decided to put a wall around his house.

There is nothing wrong with someone wanting to fence his or her house, but the problem is, by putting that wall, the fellow interfered with the natural route of rain water, so when the rains pounded and the water started flowing, it had to carve another route after encountering the brick wall.

That is why after several attempts it started flowing in the direction of the houses which are behind the fence of that fellow.

Of course tempers were flared after angry and very wet neighbours confronted the owner of the fence and told him that he has to pull down part of the fence so that water can flow freely the way it used to, but the chap refused completely.

When the neighbours tried to pull the wall down by force, the owner of the wall rushed inside his house and emerged a few seconds later brandishing an evil looking pistol.

I understand that when he decided to fire in the air, the neighbours suddenly forgot the trauma of living in the same house with floods and run for their dear lives, leaving behind several tools, including sledge hammers and heavy rocks.

Anyway, I am told that finally the stubborn neighbour agreed to break a section of the wall so that water can pass and head to the main drainage system by the main road, but this is after the local Mjumbe was summoned, who appeared in the company of several council askaris.

My dear son, I hope that by now your daughter is doing fine, because I was told that she has a serious running nose.

For a baby, or even an adult, anything that irritates the inside of the nose can cause a runny nose, but at the same time infections such as colds, flu or sinusitis and allergies often cause runny and stuffy noses, but it could also have a non-contagious cause, like cold air, hormones, or allergies.

At least you should know that toddlers with runny noses are a common sight, but for many parents, it may feel like this symptom never goes away.

Although children’s immune systems are still developing, you should make sure your family eats healthy meals and drink plenty of water, and at the same time make sure your children are getting the nutrition they need with a variety of meals and snacks full of fruits and vegetables so they can get the vitamins and minerals needed to help boost their immune systems.

Talking of irritating child sicknesses, things were almost the same here when your little sister Imani developed something called ‘colic’.

I am sure with your two children you must have come across this problem, because for parents it is usually very irritating.

If you have forgotten about this condition my dear nephew, then I have to remind you that colic is when a healthy baby cries for a very long time, for no obvious reason.

Colic affects some babies during the first 3 to 4 months of life, which usually begins suddenly, with loud and mostly nonstop crying. Colicky babies can be very difficult to calm down.

With all your aunt’s motherly instincts, she could do nothing to stop the baby from crying, which reminded us of years back when Yassin was a baby and he developed colic.

I remember we took turns trying to calm the screaming baby, but nothing worked, but after we called a doctor and he assured us that it was a normal thing, we agreed to take the child to the guest room and left him there and we went back to our room and slept peacefully.

When we went for him in the morning, we found him sleeping, red faced with his voice gone because of the nightlong screaming.

Even if you talk to any child doctor, they will tell you that this irritating problem may also be due to digestion problems or a sensitivity to something in the baby’s formula, or it might be from a baby trying to get used to the sights and sounds of being out in the world.

But apart from that episode, your little sister is a real angel my son, and sometimes I just sit and watch her as she sleeps or when she is awake.

She is also a very playful child, because most of the time she is very active, waving her little hands when someone plays with her.

I pray to Limatunda to protect this new member of our Nyamwezi tribe, because apart from brightening my days, she has transformed your aunt into a young woman.

Sometimes I just sit back and watch the two of them, and I realise that we delayed in making this vital decision, but I believe it’s also because your aunt wanted a baby of her own in the beginning, until it finally downed on her that it was out of the question.

Say hi to your family my dear son, let me pen off here because I can hear the baby crying.