||The Legend of Taavi ||

|day 90|

May 28th

African Expedition Log: Day 90

Taavi is learning more than my father and I had ever anticipated. For lessons, we go through our flashcards daily, and Taavi is being introduced to more words weekly. She knows the basic emotions (more importantly, what they mean), all of her primary and secondary colors, as well as parts of the body, and even can name some food. She's started using her newfound vocabulary throughout the day, and forming sentences. Most of them are questions of confirmation, such as:

"Blue James eyes?" or "Clayton mad yes?"

My father is thoroughly impressed with Taavi's gain of knowledge, as am I. She's so full of life when she greets us in the morning, and has somewhat of an obsession with visiting us every day without fail. I find myself longing for her to stay longer so we can get more lessons in, so I can satisfy her need to learn more about her world. We've really grown quite fond of her, much to Clayton's dismay. He's becoming increasingly frustrated due to the lack of progress on finding the gorilla territory. We're still trying to figure out what will happen when the ship comes back in a few months.

Three days ago, I made the decision to ask Taavi if she could show us where her home is, and if she could show us. All of the color left her skin at once, and she shrunk back as if we had burned her with fire. She shook her head no. Father asked why, and she only responded with one word.

"Father."

She ran off into the woods, and we haven't seen her since. I hope she's alright.