I definitely need to sign up for kiswahili classes before my next visit. My inability to teach myself is made clearer by the day, and this morning's mixup was almost too sad to be funny.
Early this morning I noticed a woman coming along the ridge to camp, and eventually recognized her as my Koko (grandmother) from the village. Seemed odd that this old gal would be making the trek up to see me, but hey, lots of things seem odd so I was only curious as I went to give her my greetings and a welcome. She was toting a rather large bag, and luckily Johanna was home to translate. Apparently, the bag contained the objects I had asked her for recently. Now...understand that I had zero recollection of asking Koko for anything, so I was somewhat mystified. Things didn't come any clearer when she pulled out two beautifully beaded ostrich eggs. I may forget minor things on a regular basis (let's chalk that up to menopause, shall we?) but c'mon....I would not have forgotten asking someone to make me a couple of fancy ostrich eggs!! She insisted I'd asked, and reminded me that it was about a week ago as we were walking around the village with the troupe of Canadian visitors. They had taken a picture of her beside me, surely I remembered??? That part I DID remember, and then the light bulb came on. In the course of that meeting I had told Koko that sometime soon I would come and buy some eggs from her. During my earlier visit, her family had been my primary source of chicken eggs. Somehow it seems, while I was overconfidently talking about mayai (that's said my-eye) I hadn't thought to qualify with the 'chicken' part, even though I actually know that word in kiswahili too (it's kuku). And, hey, who wouldn't jump to the conclusion that there was an ostrich involved in the request??...easy mistake!!
Long story short...she wanted $10 per egg. Everyone agreed that was nutso extravagant for something I didn't want in the first place, but I felt so bad about the confusion and her trek to the camp, that I offered to take just one, for $5, and she was overjoyed that we'd come to that sort of compromise.
All's well that end's well. Somebody is getting a beaded ostrich egg for Christmas....maybe the person who emails me the funniest story about why THEY deserve to be the recipient!
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Well, here goes. I made a nice roastbeef dinner tonight and invited my mother-in-law. After dinner my wife started show-and-tell and I couldn't be out-done so I showed my mom-in-law the tiny laptop computer that I bought my wayward (Ireland) daughter for Christmas (I hope she doesn't read this). y the way, she's 85. Anyway, I was impressing her with how from the dinning room table I could show her photos that were stored on my laptop that was in my bedroom. Then I showed her CBC online and brought up a video about the throne speech. Then I brought up your BLOG and told here where you were.
But what really impressed her was Solitaire!!!
Well Pierre...better late than never! You've won the beaded egg (though I may need to borrow it back occasionally to use as a prop at fundraising events). Let me know when you're free to pick it up over coffee or lunch or something.
Happy New Year and it was nice to see you this morning and enkoy one of your great coffees, two actually.
I have found a place for the egg. It had a loop for hanging and so it's hanging from the bookshelf in my bedroom, some day may fall on my head.
Thank you so much. It's a treasure.
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