ANNA - SPRING 2007

While the others were rafting, my mother and I traveled the same route by road (she would not let me join the fun again). Since we had a car to guide us, we went much faster and there were a lot of moments to be bored for a little girl. Therefore, we stopped at every place, where we saw goats - I have suddenly developed special preference for young goats. The people here were very nice, but they didn’t speak English. And I did not speak Nepalese and but still liked to have my way anyway. The solution was more direct way of communication. I just pulled the sleeve of one of the women, who were sitting around, uttered some noises and stretched my arms out. And before I knew it, I was carrying a goat baby around.
As the goats did not like to be carried, they tended to escape and thus, the process repeated itself endlessly, much to the annoyance of my mother. When the rafting had finally finished, I was horribly dirty and smelled like a goat myself, which did not keep me from wanting to be carried around myself..

In Chitwan, we staid in a safari park and made elephant tours. The elephants needed a bath every other day (tourists leave a lot of dirt behind) and that was an important part of the tourist menu. The best part of the program was, where the tourist climbed the elephant when it was kneeled in the water, it got up, took a lot of water in its trunk and showered the tourist. I also enjoyed that and wanted to participate. The elephant however was much quicker than I expected, and I already got a big shower before it even stood on its legs. I cried as many tears as the elephant showered water and had to be rescued immediately. There was no time left even for a picture.
After bathing, one of the elephants was painted beautifully and thus ensured himself of my eternal sympathy. All other guests had to wait, because I wanted to ride precisely this elephant and no other. However, once I was up on his back in the hard wooden bench with my father, and the elephant started to walk, I was rocked to sleep within five minutes, no longer aware of elephants, beautiful paintings or the threat of rhinos and tigers underneath us.

Two weeks before my fourth birthday, my mother drew up a calendar, where I could cross a box each day. But 14 boxes, that wait is far too long. So after I crosses one box together with mama in the evening, at night I got up and crossed another one, and in the morning I managed to convince my father that nothing had been crossed and we did one more. Unfortunately, my efforts did not speed up the time, and I still had to wait two weeks for the birthday to arrive.

 My birthday was celebrated with a large Barney cake (design by Worldcook), lots of presents, a puppy from my grandparents (a mechanical one this time) and a party with my girlfriends Fleur, Laura and Aditi. And of course I had a princess dress, which I have been wearing for over a week (without washing). One of the presents was a "Play-doh machine" and as you can see underneath, that allowed me to become a mini-worldcook and prepare delicious green tagliatelle.

At the end of may, I had my school graduation. In the Netherlands, I would be in Grade 1 now. Next year, I will be in another school, because I am really too big for nursery. The school gave me a real certificate and this nice gown (my favorite color too) and hat.