Thursday 3 June 2010

Word of the day: Ugnula


According to Ms.6, a "ugnula" (pronounced "you-NEW-lah") is a camel penis. This is the first thing she told me when I asked, "How was school today?" Apparently her best friend learned that a camel penis is called a "ugnula". Her friend supposedly acquired this fact during her travels to Cuba. Puzzling, because I wasn't aware that Cuba had a desert full of horny, wandering camels.

Now Ms. 6 has been known to embellish the truth somewhat. This has been a fairly recent development. First indication of said embellishments was a few weeks ago when she proceeded to tell me about her science excursion with her senior kindergarten class. They explored various plants & flowers in a field. During this trip, Ms.6 tells me a few birds landed on her shoulders, head, and hands. The birds began to sing a merry song. It appears she was channelling St. Francis of Assisi. When I asked if she was the only child partial to the phenomenon of the friendly animals reminiscent of a Disney movie, she replied that her friend (the one who rode camels in the Cuban desert) also had a few birds chatting her up.

So what to do? Crush her imagination? I have to give her credit - she's making up some entertaining stories. She convinced me to the point where I just had to google "ugnula" in various spelling versions, as well as "camel + penis". Imagine the results on THAT search! Perhaps I'll see how it rides out... I just don't want it to be a case of the girl who cried camel penis one too many times.

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