Priscilla

Priscilla is the domestic who comes each day to clean. When I first heard that we would have a maid, I poo-poo'd the idea. After all, what else am I going to do with my day right?

The first day she came, she cleaned the floors. Then she did it the next day too. Washing floors is my absolutely most dreaded chore and she does it every day! What Heaven! What Bliss! She also washes the dishes and our clothes. That is really all that she does but wow, it makes a difference. No housework hanging over my head! No worries about what Emma is going to pick up from the dirty floors. (including Ghecko, mouse and squirrel poop) What is amusing is how now everyone has to take their shoes off at the door. You can imagine that the average Kenyan man is not so keen on that. It makes Priscilla giggle when I ask them to.

On the other hand, she has some definite opinions on how Emma should be raised. She has four of her own and we met three of them the other day. Firstly, Emma does not wear enough clothing. She should have a balaclava, a jersey, and jacket, socks and shoes. It's really hard to explain to someone who doesn't speak English that Emma is used to much colder climates and that the weather here is just balmy to us. (jeans and t-shirt most days) I have broken down however and unearthed shoes because I will agree that the cement floors are chilly. When Priscilla leaves I usually take the extra jersey off though as Emma gets red in the face and grumpy.

Emma already adores Priscilla and gets excited when she hears her voice at the door. Crawls speedily over to see her and then won't come back to Momom. Just one more person who is more fun than me, it's something I am getting used to.

Priscilla is the source of the name for my arch-nemesis. She can't pronounce squirrel as she speaks mostly Turkana and Swahili. Squirrel comes out as "Spiro". Spiro was a character in the Gerald Durrell books I read avidly as a child, (and still give me great entertainment as an adult) so it seems appropriate to name him that. My second choice was Voldemort.