Cultural Note

I've mentioned "Oom" so-and-so several times in my posts and my emails and just realized that it might be good to explain what I'm saying. In this culture, you name your child when he/she is born and they go by that name until they have their first child. At that point they become "Mother of" (Oom) or "Father of" (Abu) their oldest child. In Muslim homes, the parents typically go by the name of their oldest son (if there _is_ a son), and in Christian homes, they go by the name of their oldest child (regardless of sex). So, if you were one of my parents, you would be called either Abu Jesse or Oom Jesse, depending on if you were my dad or my mom. So, my neighbor, Oom Dhoha, is Dhoha's mom. They're Muslim, but they only had daughters, so she and her husband stayed Oom and Abu Dhoha.

So that's your cultural lesson for the day. :)