Nyet Nyet

As I lay there resting at the door of the tent I heard a commotion.  It sounded like a very small and excited squirrel running past me on the road through camp.  It turned out to be a very small and excited little boy instead.  He was maybe 3 years old, with a mop of very blonde hair (picture Luke Skywalker) and the most important part, Russian.  This little Russian was running full tilt, (not so fast for a 3 year old), at a group of monkeys that were making their way across camp along the ground.  The monkeys manage to scurry along the ground about 20 feet in front of our tent and stopped for awhile.  I was the only person outside for a few hundred feet, so naturally the little Russian ran up to me to tell me all about the monkeys on the road.  There was one small problem.  He was rattling on a mile a minute, extremely excitedly, and 100% completely in Russian.  I know three words in Russian.  Da, (yes), Nyet, (no) and Babushka (Grandmother).  One of those words was most definitely not going to be helpful.

As we talked, correction, as he jabbered away insanely fast, I nodded periodically and said, da, while pointing at the monkeys with him.  Every time the monkeys moved closer he did this excited little run in place move and then would say something to me.  Periodically he’d run off and get 20 feet closer, then come back and tell me what he saw.  I thought he had left multiple times and so I would lay back down, then I’d hear the little pit pat of tiny feet come running up beside me and a new onslaught of Russian would be thrown at me.  Boy do I wish I knew what he was saying.  I could surmise, but it wasn’t quite the same thing.  I did get to use nyet (no) quite a few times though.  He thought it would be interesting to climb up our tent, that is a no-no, or nyet-nyet.  I ended up using nyet-nyet so many times when he picked up or tried to climb random things that he is forever known, to me and Lindsay at least, as Nyet-Nyet.

Lindsay came back from the shower and I got to explain about meeting Nyet-Nyet and pointed out the little mop of blonde hair running through camp.  I went to shower and enjoyed that thoroughly after the long bike ride of sweat and dust.  Then we decided to go and grab the fireplace spot for dinner.  So we sat in front of the nice old fireplace, ordered drinks and dinner, and enjoyed the fire once it was lit.  During dinner we could see a cricket match going on TV.  The score was the entire length of the bottom of the screen.  It looked like this : W:45 x 34 /56  to 54 + 34 -26% 34n x y = z.  How anybody follows this game I have no idea.

While we were drinking dessert the restaurant had a visitor.  None other than Nyet-Nyet himself.  He ran up onto the deck, said hi ( I think) to Lindsay and I and then scampered off to the people at the bar.  I watched him climb up a bar stool, which should have fallen on him ten different ways, but somehow he made it up the 4 foot chair and sat up at the bar for a while.  After “chatting” to the Kenyans working there we watched him get down and go around behind the counter. Poor guys never knew what hit them.  About five minutes later Nyet-Nyet appeared at my side holding a bottle of grape pop.  The bartender came over and asked if we were getting it for him since they thought we were his parents.  We had to explain that this was not our little Russian and we have no idea who or where his parents are.  The little scammer is smart, I’ll give him that.  I sent Nyet-Nyet off to go find his parents (I think) and we sat back with our drinks.  Another five or ten minutes later we saw Nyet-Nyet running around the restaurant with his grape bottle of pop and a straw.  Apparently his cuteness was too much for the Kenyans.  We watched him gleefully run off into the night clutching his bottle of pop.