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Photo by Geoff Nichols at Plantzafrica.
I had a semi-evil plan for fruit or vegetable X!
If I couldn’t find a real Xigua, I was going to buy the smallest, roundest watermelon I could find and tell the kids it was a xigua (Chinese watermelon). I was then, going to refer to all watermelon as Xigua until September.
I can’t do it.
I remembered the earring for a cow incident from my own childhood.
When I was 5 year-old, my dad went on away on a business trip. The day he came home, my first question, naturally, was, “What did you bring me?”
He handed me a small plastic object with a short chain loop.
“What is it?” I asked.
“Well,” he said, its an earring for a cow. They pierce a hole in the cow’s ear and put the chain through the hole like this…and then, if the cow gets lost, someone can call the farmer.”
So…
The next day I went to kindergarten and I held my new treasure aloft during show and tell.
“Does anyone know what this is?!” I asked my class.
“A key chain,” they said.
“No! It’s an earring for a cow,” I said. “They pierce a hole in the cow’s ear and put the chain through the hole like this…and then, if the cow gets lost, someone can call the farmer.”
“Katie, it’s a keychain,” my class insisted.
Some people have no imagination. Especially tragic in children, don’t you think?
Still, I will not put my evil plan into action. We ate watermelon for W and I have to find an African grocery store in the hopes of finding a Ximenia Caffra Fruit…
Does anyone know if it comes canned?
Thanks Lisa and Local Girl, I appreciate your stopping by!
Cute story. I think we all have one of those from a childhood. We all so easily and readily believe everything we are told when we are little.
Here via the carnival of family life.
1921 days ago
[...] Do you know what a Xigua is? Well, Kate of Babylune is desperately looking for one. Read her hilarious story in Sister, Can You Spare a Ximenia Caffra Fruit? [...]
1923 days ago
[...] We ate 25 out of 26 letters. While I could have legitimately, it turns out, called watermelon xigua, I used it for W. And, the Ximenia caffra fruit from South Africa (also known as Large Sour Plum) eluded me. But, I will find it…eventually. [...]
This post was hilarious. It will make me think twice before I make something up to my girls again! LOL!
Thanks for sharing this with the Carnival of Family Life.
I wasn’t completely sure if it was a direct translation for watermelon, or if there was a specific type of watermelon known as a Xigua…still, it needs to be exotic-looking watermelon to pass…
You know, Ximenia Caffra Fruit is also known as the Large Sour Plum, but it just doesn’t have the same ring…
hi, kate, AFAIK, xigua = watermelon. watermelon is just the english name and xigua is the Chinese name.