2007-08-15 Kgone

2007-08-15 Kgone, originally uploaded by royblumenthal.

This is a very rough approximation of Kgone, the lady who cleans my flat once a week.

To international readers, the way to pronounce her name is kinda difficult to describe. But I'll try.

The 'K' is almost inaudible, but definitely present.

The 'g' is a soft sound, sort of like the 'ch' in 'Lichtenstein.

The 'o' is similar to the 'or' in 'dormitory', but without the 'r' sound.

And the 'ne' is close to 'neh'.

So, putting it all together -- Kgone sounds like this: k-ch-oh-neh. But the k is much less present than it looks.

The word ,'kgone', in Sotho, means 'to help'. Though it also seems to have several other connotations. As Kgone translates it, the meaning is close to 'beneficial', or 'helpful'.

This painting was made in my lounge, using ArtRage 2.5, on my Toshiba Tecra M4 tablet pc. Kgone was having a cuppa tea while I did the initial quick sketch. She didn't know I was drawing her.

If you like this image, you can pop it onto a piece of merchandise at my Flickr-approved Zazzle shop!!!