Anni and I were painting and talking last week. It struck me that I love that she is old enough to have conversations and tell me things about her day at school or what she is thinking or how she perceives everything around her. I need to take more time to ask her questions and listen to the world explained by her. Jason was out working at the school site and it was uncommonly quiet around our house; no surprise visitors, no kukus outside the windows, no banging, no neighbors making noise. We took the opportunity to paint some pictures and I asked her if she likes living in Tanzania. She said “yeah, me like it.” I asked her to expand and probed a bit further and this is what she reported as the pro’s & con’s of living here:
What she likes…
“me love my blue baby”
“me love going to mjini (town) on dala dala”
“me have lots of rafikis……lots of best friends too, me like to play my friends”
“me like to paint” (apparently they may only have paint in Africa:), even though it is from the US)
“me love to going to the beach”
What she does not like…..
“me not like the umeme (power) goes off” (amen to that one!)
“me not like Mama always sick” (I explained that Mama would be sick anywhere š
Her lists are a lot shorter than mine but I love them. Here is a video of our 4th of July at the beach…one of Anni’s big pro’s š
http://i204.photobucket.com/player.swf?file=http://vid204.photobucket.com/albums/bb212/roxanne_engstrom/4thonthebeach.flv
I love beach too, but I also love Target! She doesn't really remember the US. When I asked her about the lake house and Disney World, she didn't remember. I love her her giggles running in the waves! Hope she has a great time with her other grandparents showing off her island. The Us is sadder without Anni here.