Monday Morning, June 29, 2009: My name is Yikealo

My name is Yikealo. It is pronounced “Yih-KAH-Lo” – the “L” sound is said with the tip of your tongue curled against the middle of the roof of your mouth, not against your teeth like Americans pronounce an “L.”


I’m playing at HH around 10:45 and one of my special mothers comes to get me. She says Almaz has someone for me to meet.





Almaz says “Your new mama and baba are here, give them a hug”. I have a mama. She is not with the crowd of Ferenji (white people) strangers, but two of the Ferenji look like the ones in the photos I was given… sort of. Almaz wants me to hug them, so I do and kiss them on the cheek for good measure. They appear to be crying. They kiss me back and whisper, “I love you Yikealo”… I wonder what that means?






Did they bring me a quas (ball)? Apparently not... but wait, there’s the quas we all share at HH, better grab it before the others do! Hmmm… my new mama and baba won’t leave me alone. I wonder if they’re fun to kick the quas to. Let’s see. You’re kidding, right? I play football better than that!


Food, is that food? Chewy, but good… tastes fruity. Bereket (one of the other boys being adopted) passes out more snacks to everyone. Chewy and… gross! Ugh! Spit this on the ground for sure. I wonder if mama has any more of the good kind...excellent! She does. I should give one of these gross ones to my new mama and see if she'll give me a sweet one in return. No! Let me put it in your mouth. There, see? Duh. Looks like my new baba is taking pictures. I want to see them, show me the pictures…. Silly!





Look, a new makina (car)! Better hold onto this so nobody else takes it, cause it’s mine!





Wonder why my new mama and baba don’t answer anything I say? Why does it take them so long to say nnnnnooooooo (aydelem)…. Don’t they know it’s just no (ai)? Maybe I should tell them: “Ai!” I wonder if these other treats are any better now… ugh, nope! Better spit this one out too. How about that one? Yuck, is this whole box full of gross treats?!

Hmmm….looks like the Ferenji are all leaving and taking mama and baba with them. That was fun. I wonder if they’ll come back with more treats some time. Mama definitely had nice treats. Better stick the makina in my pocket so it doesn’t get stolen.

Time for lunch. Good thing, those snacks weren’t cutting it….