Here We Go 'Round the Mulberry Bush

                                                                          Lazaro - proud of his pink lipstick and fingers

                                                                         Kurwa

                                                                            Mark

                                         Amani

                                                                                              Nina

                                                                                               Irene

                                                                                         Hidaya

                                                                                             Patrick

                                                                                          More berries!!!

                                                                                                          Joshua

 

Whitness

                                                                                                  Princess

                                                                                           Ellinipa makes funny faces

                                                                         intently watching the monkey chase...

                                                             ...she wants the whole handful, but she's only allowed one at a time

                                                                                   Anita and Hope caught red-handed :)

                                                                                               Eric and Rahim

                                                                            Gracie surrounded by children begging for berries

                                                                                Eric with Lilli's stolen glasses

As soon as we step outside, the kids make a bee-line for the mulberry bush! They LOVE these berries. I have always known of the children's song, "Here we go 'round the mulberry bush," but never actually known what mulberries were until I got here! Maybe everyone already knows what they are and I'm just behind the times, but for those of you who, like me, were not educated on the topic of mulberries, they are like long and skinny blackberries with out the thorns on the bush...they're great. Though the mulberry bush gets attacked by babies at least once every other day, somehow there is always a new supply of ripe berries for the kids to eat every time we venture out. They clear off the bottom layer that is within their reach very quickly then, with red sticky fingers, faces, and clothes, they reach up to the higher branches begging for more. The monkeys watch us with curious eyes and some of the brave ones come sit relatively close. Last time we were out for a berry-picking session, Grace, one of the nannies, thought she would chase one of the monkeys. Bad idea. It chased her instead! There was a mixture of laughing, screaming, and crying from the kids and it definitely caused some excitement. I was quite scared to be honest..those monkeys have big teeth and I really thought he was going to take a chunk out of her! I'm a naive mzungu (white person), though. Having monkeys in the backyard is still kind of new to me. I'm sure that's not the first time she has chased a monkey...or been chased by a monkey. She seemed fairly confident in between her shrieks :)