Lydiah, Wesley and the rest of the Songoli/Jiveti household gave me the honor and responsibility of naming their farm cat — a sort of cranky-faced-looking feline who was super friendly and will eat anything and I mean anything like bread and avocado, and once in a while would surprise me by walking onto my chest and taking a nap.

It took me 12 days, but I finally got it, on my last day.

It was Joash, the grandfather, who gave it to me in the end. I was interviewing him for the langauge project, as he is Tiriki and had provided a lot of traditional stories and songs in Tiriki for analyzation.

He told me how much things have changed: Makuche, the village I've been to, was a forest. It got its name because there were a lot of monkeys, which is "tsinguche" in Tiriki.

not sure how that translates to Makuche, but tha'ts the deal.

I call all cute things "monkey." Right!!

Alulu is also wanting to learn Spanish to land a Nicaraguan girl after all my stories of its greatness of a land, and he learned the word "mundo," or world, which is fitting.

Meet Tsinguche Mundo.

Meet Joash Jiveti, a fine man who taught kids in his community at 20 schools from the 1950s until late 1980s: