Taa taa

Again, a week has passed so quickly. Sunny and warm during the day. Cold at night. It is hard to believe that in 2 weeks it will be X-mas.

What will I write about this time ? About Yasmine, the 14 month old baby living across the field behind the house. She is handicapped. Cannot use her left arm. This made it impossible for her to start crawling. Now, she wants to walk, but it seems that her leg is not working well neither. On top of that her backbone is not very strong.

I see 8 month old babies walk over here, but Yasmine cannot and everybody wonders whether she will ever walk. It is not because she doesn’t want to. Often when she tries to stand up and doesn’t succeed, she grabs her leg angrily.

I’m sure she will have no trouble talking. Being the youngest of 4 small children, she has to defend herself many times, as the others like to take such things of her like her bottle of milk. She does it verbally, mumbling full sentences of sounds with a very angry expression on her face. When the others have something she wants, she asks for it the same way when they have no intention of giving it to her. Until she starts crying. Then anybody gives in.

She is very extravert. Contrary to her 3 year old sister, Rehaaf, who does not speak nor move when a stranger is around, Yasmine turns herself to the visitor with a curious expression on her face and puts out her hand to say hello.

The other day, the next door’s nephews came by to play with her brothers Ahmed and Mohamed, but they both went to see their Grandmother who is living in a house up the slope. She immediately informed the boys by pointing her finger in the direction of the house.

The strongest expression she uses is the back kick with her head when she wants to say “no”. It is normal here to raise the eyebrows to say “no”. The back kick with the head is a firm confirmation of the first “no”. Either she is not capable yet of raising her eyebrows this way or it is a mere expression of her strong character which she will need to cope with her handicap.

These days I often go and work in the sun behind the house. This is in full view of Yasmine who when not sleeping is sitting in a baby chair on the veranda. When she sees me, she puts out her hand and says “taa” (come) repeatedly. When I don’t react – it is too far away for me to hear and usually not paying attention – she starts crying. Then I know and go over and pull her out of the chair. Before she liked me walking her around on my arm, but now she always wants to sit on the ground to play with the earth. Her Mother doesn’t want that, but when she is not looking, I put Yasmine down supporting her back. It is a lot of fun for her to move some earth from one side to the other and eat some.

She tries to make the most of being a baby, especially when her Mother is not watching.