Pearl

The most active little character around this house is ten-year-old Pearl, daughter of Lulu and granddaughter of Gogo Hester. Pearl goes to school during the day, but once she is home she is somewhere underfoot. She adores my computer (in spite of its current uselessness), and she is only allowed to go near it if she keeps her hands in her pockets. She sings and sings and sings. She knows that if she bothers me, I will tickle her, so she makes a game of putting her hands in my face or climbing all over me. This afternoon while I was sitting on the patio, she took my hair down and had tied it into intricate knots before I realized what she was doing. She is a brilliant kid. She loves the camera. She simply must be involved in everything that is going on.

Today she asked me, "When you go home, you will go to Germany?" There are several German guys staying in the house, so I think she's trying to figure us out. "No, I am not from Germany. I am from America," I said. "What is America?" she asked. I knew the key for this one. "You know 'The Bold and the Beautiful'? They are in America." "The Bold and the Beautiful" is nothing less than an event around here, every night at 6:30. Pearl's eyes grew wide. "Do you know them face to face?" I told her that unfortunately I did not, but that we lived in the same country (perhaps also unfortunately).

It is really a delight to have Pearl here, even though she can really drive me crazy at times. It's fascinating to watch her go from English to Xhosa and back to English like it's nothing at all, even with some Afrikaans here and there. It's nice to come home and always have her little body running out to greet me.