Baby exchange (7/11/11)

A lot of women have been having babies in the past month or so, but this was certainly a special case. One of my mom's in the village was due pretty much any day and her husband was the not so proud father of 4 girls already. I say not so proud in the sense that he just really wanted to have a boy. I was sitting down one night at the nakamal drinking kava with him when I jokingly said that if his wife had another girl he'd just have to trade it for one of the baby boys in the village and no one would be the wiser. He laughed about it and I thought it was a great joke. Boy, was I ever wrong. About a week later he and his wife went up to the dispensary so that she could have the baby. Unbeknownst to me, at the same time another one of my distant family members was there having a child as well. Wouldn't you know, my dad Bob's wife had another girl, making him the father of 5 girls now, while my other cousin cousin cousin something's wife had a baby boy, the 6^th of 6 boys born to him. While both of the women were sleeping and holding their new born babies the dads sat down and decided that they would make a trade. Bob didnt want another girl he wanted a boy, and his cousin felt the same about wanting a girl, because he would need a girl to cook and clean once his wife got too old to do it. So it was decided and the men shook on it. The next morning they explained to their wives that they were trading babies. This obviously didnt go over too well with the women, who were quite attached to the child they had just born regardless of gender. Bob's wife Stelin was very upset (understandably) about having to give up her new born baby girl in trade for a new born baby boy that was not hers. News of this came through coconut wireless and the women were all sitting down talking about it while cooking one day when they told this story to my real mom. This of course distressed her and she came to talk with me about it. Not sure of what I could do I called a few other volunteers and asked them if they had heard about this happening in other place. Jenni came through with an answer for me. While not a common occurrence, in Vanuatu it is perfectly legal to trade children pending entirely on the consent of..... you guessed it..... the fathers. That means if I had a kid and I wanted to give it to my cousin who really has wanted a baby boy, it doesnt matter what my wife, who just had the kid wants, I can legally pass the kid off without her consent. This made me a bit sad to find that out, but if its legal I guess there isn't much I can do unless they decide to change to rule. Vanuatu seems to become progressively crazier and crazier the more you get to know it.