Antonio the Lion

For several weeks, our green grocer, Tony, had been saying that he had a 'cadeautje' (little gift) for Elena of a doll that me him think of her. We have always recieved lovely and special treatment from our green grocer, and his mom and daughter who work the Saturday morning market. Elena gets banana's, oranges, treat, tickles, waves, and we are treated like friends. Which is reallly nice. So on Saturday, Tony's mom yells you, 'Antonio! Een klien meisje!' (Antonio, the little girl!)

It turns out that the 'little doll' was actually a huge stuffed lion.


Elena was thrilled, so excited. Tony helped us stuff him in a plastic sack to keep his tail dry and Elena alternated wanting to hold her banana and hold the lion (now named Antonio). Antonio rode home in the basket of my bike. He eats quite a lot, Elena has to make special lion food (Tony's daughter, who Tony's says Elena reminds him very much of, told us that lions eat chips! ha ha, nice try). She goes around saying, 'This is my lion from Tony...the fruit man!'