Meet my Neighbors: Part I

23 July 2013

This morning, like most, my neighbor Marie, age 3, is crying.

It is 9am and her beloved sister Nani left for school 45 minutes ago. Marie adores her sister and cries when she goes to school every morning & when she leaves after lunch in the afternoon. “My Nani!!!” She wails as if her sister has been taken away never to be seen again. In fact Nani will return home in a few hours, as she does every day. Marie does not seem to notice or find comfort in this pattern.

Nani is very fashionable. Her shoes
 are wearing sunglasses and wings. 

To be fair Marie’s sister Nani is pretty great. She’s a charismatic leader and natural attention hog.

Nani is adorable. Unlike most kids in my town, Nani’s parents keep her clean and well dressed. Frequently she gets her hair done at the salon; weave is braided into her baby hair making it longer with large bouncy curls. It’s sort of an absurd effort since Nani is only 5 years old, but at 5 I was sporting a bowl cut so what do I know.

Several times I’ve caught Nani standing on an overturned carton singing like a pop music sensation to a small audience of neighborhood babies under her age. They children stand mesmerized as Nani shakes her finger and hits all the wrong notes. I blame these kids’ young age for their impressionability, but as I attempt to be discrete peering through the wooden fence I find myself just as guilty for enjoying her performance.

       Every time I go outside Nani and Marie call out “B” repeatedly to

Nani peeking through the fence.

catch my attention as they sit behind the rickety scrap wood that constitutes the fence between our homes. I say “hello”, wave and look their way, but the girls persist as they started without acknowledging I’ve responded at all. “B, B, B, B” It’s a sweet sentiment but after nearly 2 years I’m short on patience. For all their bravado I find it surprising that outside of their home compound neither of the girls will talk to me. I see them at the neighbors’ get-togethers, at the market, in the street or at school and they are both too shy to utter anything or even make eye contact.  All the other neighborhood kids give me hugs and fist bumps when I am in the street except these two.