The pregnancy rock

I will pick up the story from the last time I blogged again later, but have included the next two very informative stories in the meantime. 

Brot u. Rosen is full of intercultural moments of sharing and learning.  For example, in Kenya, pregnant women eat rocks.  But not just any rocks! A specific kind of soft rock chock full of calcium.  It doesn’t even have a name; it’s just referred to as that rock that pregnant women eat.  Our pregnant Kenyan woman had a visitor from Kenya over Easter who brought her one such rock. She was super excited, because here in the afro-shops you can buy pregnancy rocks, but they are all from West Africa, and just don’t taste the same. She had finished off her last rock long ago, and was craving one like other pregnant women crave pickles in their ice cream. She let everyone try the rock.  It didn’t taste bad….or good……or like anything at all. One of the community members concluded that it must only have a taste when one is pregnant.  When our Honduran woman witnessed the rock-eating, she was much dismayed (ay, no!!).  Apparently in Honduras, when one has the urge to eat dirt and other mineral-rich substances, it is because one has parasites and is suffering such a mineral deficiency that one seeks it at its source.  Anyway, we are expecting a happy calcium-rich baby any time now!