Monday conversation with Stella
Had a chance to chat with Stella for a bit early Monday afternoon. She and Amani are spending their final week in Nairobi. They fly out Saturday night, spend most of Sunday in London, and then land at Logan just before 10:00 on Sunday night.
Some notes from our call:
- Stella, her brother Lawrence, and the kids spent two days in Meru last week, and Stella was able to see her dad. We didn’t speak too much about the trip, although Stella did say she bought him a new TV.
- Amani’s vocabulary continues to expand! He said “mambo” (a slang word for “hello”) several times over the phone — and very clearly, at that — and Stella says he’s also learned “tuende,” which means “let’s go.” In fact, one morning he woke up Stella and used that word to indicate they should get out of bed. Very impressive!
- Amani’s appetite still hasn’t changed all that much — plenty of milk, not much food.
- Amani’s continued bullying of Max now means that his cousin has resorted to running away from him.
- Stella’s mom is traveling (on business, I presume) but will return on Wednesday. Stella is planning to help her repaint some of her walls to a slightly less arresting shade of greeen.
- No travel plans for the rest of their stay in Kenya. Stella has some appointments for her hair and nails and plans to do a bit of shopping. Otherwise, it’s hanging out with the fam until they leave on Saturday.
- I revealed to Stella that I had considered flying to London this week in order to surprise her and Amani at the airport. I also revealed that budget considerations ultimately killed the dream.
We’ll try and talk one more time before they head home.
—Bryan
