Monday is strawberry day

This morning when I went to the market I was a little disappointed by the fruit selection. The passion fruit didn’t look so hot, there were none of my favorite kind of mangoes, and I wasn’t in the mood for pineapple. Luckily, it’s Monday, and Monday is strawberry day.

Our yard meri, Defa, comes and works for us on Monday mornings. Her family grows strawberries as a cash crop, and she sells them in the market every week. And when she comes to work, she will bring me some of her best leftovers to sell. So most Mondays, we have strawberries for lunch. The strawberries here don’t last long, so we eat them all on the first day, or freeze any leftovers.

Here is Defa with Greg. Today she saw the birthmark on his back, and wanted to know what had happened to him. I explained that he’d had it since he was born, and it was normal. ‘Oh’, she replied – ‘it’s like this’ (pointing to a mole on her cheek). Well, sort of…

Defa and her husband have a hard time pronouncing Greg’s name – the G and R at the beginning of a word is difficult for them. So Defa told me that they had decided to call him the same name as their oldest son – Radley. “Radley?” I asked. “Yes, Ladley” she replied. (Gadsup speakers also don’t differentiate between “r” and “l” – it sounds the same to them). I wasn’t sure if she was perhaps trying to say “Bradley” or if their son’s name is Radley/Ladley. Anyway, I found it humerous that Bradley/Radley/Ladley was an easier name to pronounce than Greg!