This photo was taken in June 2013 at the chief's house in Senegal to celebrate my host mother's completion of her 6 month training to become a live birth attendant. When she started the training she was nervous and almost didn't go, she and many other community members doubted her ability to train at the health post when she could not read or speak French (the language spoken by health professionals). With encouragement from her husband and myself she completed her training, learned some French, and grew ten inches taller in confidence. In this photo celebrating her remarkable work, my namesake and I are dancing together as the other women from the village clap and sing along. The tradition of naming children after older family members creates a wonderful bond between generations. It was shared with me through my namesake as can be seen in this picture. This was a day of celebration involving all the women in the community.