We are safely back home, in the rainforest (for the last 2 weeks now). We were sitting outside under the cooking shelter (mbanjo) with some of our Baka neighbors. Our kids were chasing our rooster and Mama Lendo was cracking up about it. They would yell at their kids if they were chasing chickens (unless they were trying to catch it to eat it), “Muffff!” But, for some reason it’s funny when our kids chase chickens. Here’s the conversation that followed:
Mama Lendo: Nathan, your rooster speaks Baka, I heard him while you were gone, he said, “Where’d Nathan go?” I answered him, “He’s in Yaounde”.
Us: What???
Mama Lendo (laughing a lot): You hear him? Now he’s saying, “Nathan’s come back home”.
All of us were laughing by then, and as we listened to the rooster crow “ir-rr-rr-ir” or as we say in English “cock-a-doodle doo”, we could “hear” him saying “Natan go aka-e?” and “Natan du a nda-o-e”. At that point, our cat walked by.
Me: Mama Lendo, does our cat speak Baka?
Mama Lendo: No, I haven’t heard her say anything…yet.
The girls have been enjoying the bucket of toy plates, cups, pots & pans and plastic "food". They make all kinds of greens and couscous out of sand and dirt and cook it over their pretend fires. We just cleaned out the "classroom" to get ready for home schooling Nandry & Boaz this year and found a bunch of treasures to put in the community play bucket.
Boaz turned 5 years old on Tuesday! We had a great day, and a great party! First we played some outside games like "Keep the Giant Balloon Up In the Air", then "Steal the Dinosaur Eggs" which were water balloons, then a waterballoon fight!
Mama Lendo really didn’t want me to be confused so she sat down next to me and very animatedly explained what she was talking about. Then it finally clicked in my mind that the Baka word for “my friend” is the same as the Baka word for “my namesake”. We both laughed a bunch about it, as I came to understand that she was telling me that Nathan has another Laurel at the encampment, my namesake! 
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