“I went to the woods because I wished to live deliberately and all I got was this lousy t-shirt.”
~ t-shirt gift from a fellow volunteer

one of the American members of the “Awesome Foursome” brought over a t-shirt she had printed for me. well, she had one printed for herself and decided i might like one too. some of you may recognize the first half of the quote from Thoreau’s “Walden”.

another gift i am bringing home is an alphabet drawing from one of the girls at the afternoon reading club. today’s project was to write each letter of the alphabet and then draw a picture beside it that started with that letter. while other kids crowded the bench desks in twos and threes and even fours, Janet sat at the back by herself. she drew an apple for A, a banana, a carrot, a dog with a long pink tongue, an elephant, a betterfly (her spelling), a horse, an ice-bloock (her spelling), and a kalulu (no idea what that is).

for J she drew a jennifer. i have small eyes and eyebrows, two dots for my nose, and flat lines of hair across my head. a v-neck t-shirt covers shoulders wider than my head with skinny stick arms. i thought it was a perfect — and perfectly flattering — representation. i’m sure it will end up framed somewhere at home.

speaking of home, i’m not really bringing many gifts back. i know it will be impossible to bring a piece of this corner of Africa home with me and it feels futile to even try. instead, i hope my stories over coffee will be enough.

You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.