Even in the bathtub

You may recall from our first visit to Simanjiro, seeing Eleanor in a black and white necklace. This was a gift from a Maasai woman who one morning came to the boma. When we visited Gabrielle's home in Nainokanoka, his sisters made Eleanor another beaded necklace; this one with much smaller red and blue beads. His sisters, lovingly, presented this necklace to Eleanor and tied it around her neck. For a minute she was okay, but shortly thereafter had a meltdown that resulted in me having to break the necklace with my teeth, sending little beads rolling across the concrete floor, in an effort to get it off of her. She was terrified.

I was mortified. I had just destroyed a beautiful handmade gift from Gabrielle's family. I collected as many of the seed beads as I could, placed them in a little plastic ear plug container from my bathroom kit and told Tim (then Gabrielle) the whole, sad, story. Gabrielle laughed and said "They'll fix it." Ad they did: when we left Nainokanoka we had a single strand of beads with a clasp.

Since then, the necklace has been sitting around the house, in the hopes that Eleanor would become familiar and comfortable with it, as she did the first Maasai jewelry she was given. And she sure has. She now wears both of these necklaces everyday and everywhere.

Even in the bathtub.
- kjd