Saturday, January 29, 2011
follow-up
Since I posted this I have had confirmation from my Mother that the tragic story about Cina and her violent beau was true.
Emma Update
She is really learning how to control the world around her, which includes K and I. She now takes one of our fingers and leads us around, showing us things and getting us to play with her. She has also started helping me with packing away things instead of just unpacking. Her conversation also sounds more and more like she knows exactly what she is saying and it is only us who don't. She will repeat the same "sentence" again and again trying to tell us something and we try and guess what it is she is saying from her body language.
She has started a really strange thing while she nurses, which is to put either her finger or her toe into my belly button. It is so uncomfortable but she is most insistent that this is the way things will be now. I am quite curious as to whether other babies do this, or what her reason is for it. Is it just that it is a perfect big-toe sized hole?
Her memory is also lasting longer as we logged onto Skype with her aunty and uncle and she nearly climbed into the computer in her excitement at seeing them. The last time she had seen them was three weeks before.
She has started a really strange thing while she nurses, which is to put either her finger or her toe into my belly button. It is so uncomfortable but she is most insistent that this is the way things will be now. I am quite curious as to whether other babies do this, or what her reason is for it. Is it just that it is a perfect big-toe sized hole?
Her memory is also lasting longer as we logged onto Skype with her aunty and uncle and she nearly climbed into the computer in her excitement at seeing them. The last time she had seen them was three weeks before.
Sunday, January 16, 2011
cucumber sandwiches anyone?
Today we availed ourselves of a friendly Mpala babysitter and went out for a couple of hours. We played tennis and then had a picnic on top of the Landy at a spot called Hippo Pools.
The tennis courts are up at the original Ranch house which is kept as a place to house VIP guests. It is kept up as it was when it was the home of the white Kenyan ranch owner and fits the bill of a colonial home perfectly. Think "Out of Africa" with shaded porches containing comfortable wicker furniture and sweeping lawns sloping out into the view of Mount Kenya.
The ranch's tennis courts are clay, which I have never played on before. (Actually, if I am honest I have never played tennis at all. I have, on many occasions, batted and swatted and even heaved at a tennis ball with a tennis racket, on a tennis court) The red clay is reflected beyond the court into the savanna which surrounds it, and as you lob the ball up for a serve Mt. Kenya is framed behind it. Quite a venue.
K and I thoroughly enjoyed tooling about on the court and he even made me do some real warm-up exercises. Then we settled in for a "game". Within minutes we abandoned the game and decided to just try and manage to hit the ball to one another. This was quite effective as K is fast enough to run about and catch most of my forehand. My backhand sent birds, dikdiks and monkeys outside the courts scurrying. After a while we decided that we would hit the ball to each other twenty times and then go and get lunch. Then we decided we would hit the ball to each other fifteen times and then go and get lunch. Eventually we decided nine was a little bit like fifteen and left.
Hippo pools is a spot where the Ewaso Nyero river makes a big loop and creates a still pool with a broad bank perfect for Hippos and crocs to pull themselves out of the water. Well, actually just one croc. The bend in the river has created a floodplain where incredibly tall fever trees grow. These are acacia xanthophloea. They are trees with a bright green bark on trunks that grow straight up and tall, and their branches spread out in a thick fan high above. They are graceful trees and their presence at Hippo pools makes it the perfect spot to sit and watch the wildlife and birds. After our exertions we enjoyed our lunch of avo and tomato sandwiches and felt completely vindicated in finishing a whole bar of chocolate.
The tennis courts are up at the original Ranch house which is kept as a place to house VIP guests. It is kept up as it was when it was the home of the white Kenyan ranch owner and fits the bill of a colonial home perfectly. Think "Out of Africa" with shaded porches containing comfortable wicker furniture and sweeping lawns sloping out into the view of Mount Kenya.
The ranch's tennis courts are clay, which I have never played on before. (Actually, if I am honest I have never played tennis at all. I have, on many occasions, batted and swatted and even heaved at a tennis ball with a tennis racket, on a tennis court) The red clay is reflected beyond the court into the savanna which surrounds it, and as you lob the ball up for a serve Mt. Kenya is framed behind it. Quite a venue.
K and I thoroughly enjoyed tooling about on the court and he even made me do some real warm-up exercises. Then we settled in for a "game". Within minutes we abandoned the game and decided to just try and manage to hit the ball to one another. This was quite effective as K is fast enough to run about and catch most of my forehand. My backhand sent birds, dikdiks and monkeys outside the courts scurrying. After a while we decided that we would hit the ball to each other twenty times and then go and get lunch. Then we decided we would hit the ball to each other fifteen times and then go and get lunch. Eventually we decided nine was a little bit like fifteen and left.
Hippo pools is a spot where the Ewaso Nyero river makes a big loop and creates a still pool with a broad bank perfect for Hippos and crocs to pull themselves out of the water. Well, actually just one croc. The bend in the river has created a floodplain where incredibly tall fever trees grow. These are acacia xanthophloea. They are trees with a bright green bark on trunks that grow straight up and tall, and their branches spread out in a thick fan high above. They are graceful trees and their presence at Hippo pools makes it the perfect spot to sit and watch the wildlife and birds. After our exertions we enjoyed our lunch of avo and tomato sandwiches and felt completely vindicated in finishing a whole bar of chocolate.
Monday, January 10, 2011
Emma Update
It is a joy to watch Emma growing in leaps and bounds daily. She lovesto fogure out stuff, especially real stuff rather than toys. She puts lids back on bottles, opens cupboards and drawers, tips up her sippy cup and presses buttons.
She also "talks" on the phone. She loves few things better than to put your cell phone to her ear and walk around, having a chat with someone. She has long conversations which are mostly one-sided and holds one hand out to the side, fingers splayed. What is really funny is that when the phone actually rings she looks at it in horror and gives it to you to take care of the annoying person who dares to talk back.
She has just this week started to love her stuffed animals. She has a number of them and has mostly ignored them. This week she has been carrying two favourites around with her, snuggling them and talking to them. One is a Frog who is bigger than her, named Prince Charming and the other is a soft hound dog named Bond. She adores it when you take all three of them on your lap and cuddle together.
She also "talks" on the phone. She loves few things better than to put your cell phone to her ear and walk around, having a chat with someone. She has long conversations which are mostly one-sided and holds one hand out to the side, fingers splayed. What is really funny is that when the phone actually rings she looks at it in horror and gives it to you to take care of the annoying person who dares to talk back.
She has just this week started to love her stuffed animals. She has a number of them and has mostly ignored them. This week she has been carrying two favourites around with her, snuggling them and talking to them. One is a Frog who is bigger than her, named Prince Charming and the other is a soft hound dog named Bond. She adores it when you take all three of them on your lap and cuddle together.
A Tall Tale?
When I was young my maternal grandmother had a maid who always wore a cloth over her face. She wore it to cover the lower part of her face but her eyes were always kind above it. The cloth made it very hard to understand what she said and her voice sounded raspy, as if she had been smoking since she was as small as I was then.
Her name was Cina and one day I got up enough courage to ask Granny Hazel why Cina wore the cloth. The tale went like this. When Cina was young she was incredibly beautiful with a rosebud mouth and a small pert nose. She had many suitors but eventually she started going with just one very handsome young man. They were well matched and she cared a great deal for him but of course there was a fly in the ointment. Her beau was incredibly jealous of Cina and suspicious of any man who had contact with Cina. One day they went to a braai of a mutual friend and Cina's boyfriend saw her flirting with another friend of theirs. Cina's boyfriend flew into a rage and took up the woodchopper sitting next to the braai. He first chopped at the flirty friend and then swung the chopper and sliced off the front of Cina's face.
Cina tried various kinds of surgery to reconstruct her face but was left with terrible disfigurement and much scarring.
I was utterly horrified at this story and have thought often of it, the details remained very clear in my mind as I grew up. It is only now though that I have examined the tale and thought that it has the resonance of a tale rather than a true story. Do people truly have rosebud mouths combined with pert noses? Is it possible to cleave a persons nose from their face with a woodchopper? My Grandmother always told very good stories and now she is gone I am left to wonder forever if this is just a story, or true and tragic.
Her name was Cina and one day I got up enough courage to ask Granny Hazel why Cina wore the cloth. The tale went like this. When Cina was young she was incredibly beautiful with a rosebud mouth and a small pert nose. She had many suitors but eventually she started going with just one very handsome young man. They were well matched and she cared a great deal for him but of course there was a fly in the ointment. Her beau was incredibly jealous of Cina and suspicious of any man who had contact with Cina. One day they went to a braai of a mutual friend and Cina's boyfriend saw her flirting with another friend of theirs. Cina's boyfriend flew into a rage and took up the woodchopper sitting next to the braai. He first chopped at the flirty friend and then swung the chopper and sliced off the front of Cina's face.
Cina tried various kinds of surgery to reconstruct her face but was left with terrible disfigurement and much scarring.
I was utterly horrified at this story and have thought often of it, the details remained very clear in my mind as I grew up. It is only now though that I have examined the tale and thought that it has the resonance of a tale rather than a true story. Do people truly have rosebud mouths combined with pert noses? Is it possible to cleave a persons nose from their face with a woodchopper? My Grandmother always told very good stories and now she is gone I am left to wonder forever if this is just a story, or true and tragic.
Tru Dat
Our cistern sprung a leak. When the tap is turned on water poured from it in a pretty arc like one of those boy cherubs peeing artfully into a fountain. Our plumber came along to look at it and said that it was fine. After I showed him how to turn the tap on and allowed the leak to flow, he played his hand in the water appreciating the cool on his fingers for a moment. Then he proclaimed; "It is broken" and left. We haven't seen him since.
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