Laurie finding his feet...as a foal

I watch children here they are taken along by their mothers but generally ignored – swaddled to their body or they work helping to collect grass or firewood.  But they have many playmates and form mini tribes.  Laurie is greatly missing his friends and to some degree structure.  Since we set sail nearly 6 weeks ago most days he asks ‘When are we going back to Oxford?’  Now I think of if he is more attached to ‘nork’ his comfort blanket than usual.  And his thumb sucking looks so out of place in a country where ‘good water’ is very scarce and hands are something to be feared and only shaken tentatively if the occasions demands.

Wild, free living is something most unusual and indeed seems to go against modern parenting where circumstance and our inner world dictates that ‘control’ and ‘order’ are the preferred modes of operation. Dominik describes his preferred style of parenting as having ‘a foal at foot’.  Of course this is a privilege… a foal in the office environment would just be a noise/trip hazard!

I worry that Laurie doesn’t find my foot fall that engaging, though we have wonderful moments such as peeling carrots together or planting a mini herb garden and then one time long water games while I painted in the bathroom or using charcoal to draw an army of ants on the wooden table at the main house.   (Or our  glorious 'off the hook' day in Pemba...mentioned in another blog scribble.) But perhaps that’s the point to share wonderful moments and inbetween to learn to entertain yourself or the art of patience. 

Though being a foal at Daddy’s feet is very diverting…lying under the landrover with a large spanner, jangling around in the back of the landrover with rangers as they head  into deep forest, getting caked in mud while fishing and much else on the dangerous spectrum.