Adventures in language

Remember our language lesson where we said that "shame" means "how cute"? Luke said something to the receptionist at work, a Xhosa woman who goes by "Auntie," about the kids, and she asked how old they are. He said "1 and 3" and when she responded with a severe "SHAAAAAME!!!" he wondered for a second if he'd done something wrong before he remembered the local meaning.

In a less interesting story, our maid asked if I had a "lappie," by which she meant a washcloth (I think).

Also, this isn't about language, but I am often asked if Sonora is a boy or a girl. Which surprises me because she has long-ish hair and is usually dressed in pink, and it made me wonder what the "rules" are for dressing boys and girls around here. Today at the park we were hanging out with a dad and his, I thought, daughter. I referred to "her" with female pronouns at one point, shortly after which he loudly praised him with "good boy, good boy!", possibly for my benefit. This boy was dressed in blue but had long flowing blond hair, some of which was put up in a little ponytail topknot right over his forehead in a way that an American would NEVER do with a boy. He had some crazy Afrikaans name that I can't remember but wish I could. But that experience in small part answers my confusion about how anyone could mistake Sonora for a boy. Now I'm sort of wishing I hadn't gotten rid of some of Sonora's old clothes because they were too girly to dress Ivan in. Guess I could've still used them around here without it being too weird - oh well.