Ellinipa

I took the braids out of Ellinipa's hair a couple of weeks ago to check out her afro. It's a pretty nice one, isn't it? After the long process of taking out the braids and attempting to comb it, I took her down the road to the little duka (shop) where I bought her some mandazi to nibble on while I braided her hair into a fresh style. African hair is great! It is so much more fun to do than mzungu hair because you can move it in any direction and it will stay put just like that! By the way, those white little dots you see in her hair...that's dried ugi (porridge). Somehow at meal time, the kids manage to get porridge everywhere, including their hair. When I combed it out, the leftover porridge just spread throughout her lovely fro.                               

Ellinipa has the highest voice EVER. It's so high, in fact, that it almost doesn't sound real. The nannies love to imitate it and I love to hear it...unless she is screaming. The decibel level of Ellinipa's cry is simply WAY too high for any eardrums to handle. She calls me something along the lines of "depadee" which always makes me smile. She has bright eyes that always look as if she's asking a question and cute little eye-lashes to frame them. She is a blast!
Ellinipa turns two this month and will go back to her extended family probably sometime in January.

"belly-button, Depadee!!!"