Today will be my first full day in Africa and with it will come a meeting with UN staffers. But much more importantly than this meeting will be the task given to me before leaving Vancouver. My work partner Nathaniel and I will be delivering pen-pal letters written by Vancouver students to their counterparts in the impoverished Kibera district schools.
I’ve read over some of these letters and found them to be charming, touching and revealing of kids whose attentions are constantly battling for other rapidly incoming attentions. The world moves fast these days and apparently so do our youth’s sentences.
Garrett writes to Jambo:
Hi! I got your letter and saw that you like soccer I like it too! What position do you play? I have a pet fish. Do you like soup? I like the Jonas Brothers do you know who they are? What colour are your shoes? So on and so forth.
Kids are amazing. Kenyan kids are out of this world cute. They are adorable, polite and eerily silent and expressionless around Nathaniel and I. Nathaniel asked me to bring a stuffed Lion for 18 month old Stacy. This is what she looked like upon receiving the golden-fleeced toy:
Go ahead, I dare you to try and be cuter than Stacy.
Hey Rob, I am really looking forward to reading your blog.
Sorry I couldnt meet you in Amsterdam, I was stuck in a snowstorm. I like snowstorms, do you know what that is, what color are your pants
xo
Hmmmm. Nope. I tried. Still not cuter!
Stacy will treasure that lion for a long long time. Look at those cheeks! Have the kids tried to hold your hands yet? Many children holding a finger each? I hope you get to experience that, I really do. What a lucky little lion <3
Yes, many kids want to hi-five me as I pass them by. I, of course, must oblige them.