No one likes the blue

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Originally uploaded by mchughtie.

I was tutoring the kids, teaching an eleven-year-old the letter sounds, and Fakeba was painting their house a color I can only describe as "smurf." Personally, I liked it, and encouraged him on, and he was incredibly proud that he even had the money to buy the stuff, but I looked over at Betembo, his wife of 26 years, (Who's 39, folks)and she was rolling her eyes and shaking her head. "A mulunjawyatta," she said, to poor Fakeba, who was dripping with paint. "It's ugly." The kids all chimed in with their enthusiastic agreement. But by that time he was done, and a little late for dissent, so the blue remains until next year, marking our compound as by far the most colorful on the block.