Saturday's Child

We have a young woman come to clean our offices three mornings a week (sweep and mop) and all day Saturdays (other cleaning). She was recommended by one of our downstairs neighbors, who also runs the small provisions shop out front. She is very nice although I can’t communicate with her much, so I took pictures of all the things she’s supposed to clean and put them on a one page sheet posted in the store room. That works great.

She always brings her baby, Prince or Kwaku depending on whether you are using his day-of-the-week name (he was born on a Wednesday), who is just walking. Today she also brought her older son. And imagine my surprise when it was a boy who had been one of my pals when I was here before. He “traveled” at one point during my stay and I never saw him again. I think they used to live in the compound just behind us and now live elsewhere nearby so he doesn’t hang with the kids here anymore.

Kwame (born on a Saturday) or Frank, if you prefer, is six. That is the same age as Precious and Louis, downstairs and they both love to color, although they have a little difficulty staying inside the lines. So, I got out some crayons (the really cool 64 box with the built-in sharpener) and gave him the Winnie the Pooh coloring book. I was sitting at the table also, applying branded labels to our battery adapters, and he carried on a whole conversation with me in English! And then I noticed he was coloring almost perfectly – and selecting really interesting and beautiful color combinations. Someone, please tell me if this is normal at six! I always thought he was very smart (when I knew him before) and he was only 5 then. Do I have some sort of prodigy on my hands?

Plus, he’s totally adorable – with a huge gap between his front teeth, which seems very common here – I would guess one in ten. Here are a couple pictures. Check out the socks! He was in a thick denim shirt, long pants, and tennis shoes today. It was overcast all morning and is perceived to be “cold”. I’ve been in shorts all day, as usual. Maybe it will give me reputation as tough – but I doubt it. Last week in the village, a very old woman came over and poked my arm in several places. Someone saw it and laughed, then told me that the old lady thought my skin must be delicate and tear easily and she wanted to check it out.

?? So, she was sure I would tear easily but didn’t mind damaging me to find out ??

Anyway, it was so nice to see Kwame again. He was really cute playing with his little brother while his mother cleaned. I imagine he’ll be coming regularly on Saturdays from now on.
XO