Geremu's Name

Geremu's name is pronounced Gear-a-moo-a with the r rolled. It literally means "amazing", which fits him well. When we first received Geremu's proposal we told our entire family after accepting. We were unsure if we would keep his name or change it, but we told everyone what his name was. We were not sure if we were pronouncing it correctly and looking back now I know we weren't. When we left for Ethiopia we were pretty sure we would be keeping the name Geremu as his middle name and changing his first name to Boden.

Once we were in Ethiopia we and realized just how hard it is to say his name the correct way. We had the chance to meet someone very special in Geremu's life in Ethiopia and we also realized that his name has a wonderful story that is very meaningful. We left Ethiopia very unsure about what to call him.

We tried calling him Boden, Bo and Bode for awhile (maybe 2 weeks) but it really didn't seem to fit him. It was really hard to call him anything other than what we had been calling him for the 3 months prior to travel, you may recall this post. Geremu never really answered to Boden or anything of the sort and when he figured out we were calling him Bo he would look right at us and say, "Geremu".

We discussed it for a very long time and decided we would keep Geremu as his first name but make it a bit simpler to pronounce and use Boden as his middle name. So we do not roll the r or say the a sound in his name. We pronounce it Gere (like Richard Gere) moo (like the sound a cow makes). For short we just call him Gere, when we first started doing this he would look at us and say "moo". The kid is a force to be reckoned with:)

One quick story about Cullen's new friend Gerald (I'm not sure how his name is spelt or if this is really even his name). I was asking Cullen where Gerald lives because I know he rides the bus with Cullen. I was trying to help him because he appeared to be thinking really hard it.
I asked if Gerald was already on the bus when Cullen got on or did he get on after.
Cullen looked at me and said, "I think Gerald lives where Geremu use to live."
Now I'm REALLY confused and asked, "You mean Gerald lives in Ethiopia?"
Cullen tells me he does.
I meander over that for awhile before asking Cullen if Gerald's skin color is like his or like Gere's?
He says, "Gerald looks like Granny Bird."

Does this mean Gerald looks to be about 50 years old and is commuting from Ethiopia to pre-k everyday? Or am I just confused.