Beginnings and Endings

...now who would have inscribed my book with this? Mothers are always right.

This is my last night in Kakata.  Oh, it’s too soon!  I’ve grown very close with my family and will miss them tremendously.  The kids have been such a joy for me (and I hope I for them).  I finished The Wizard of Oz tonight and almost started crying when Glinda says, “You had the power all along,” and Dorothy says her tearful goodbyes.

Click! Click! Click …and she’s gone.

In many ways I feel like Dorothy.  One day I was whisked off and dropped in a strange and wonderful land.  I have very dear friends and many adventures ahead, but Missouri tugs at the back of my mind.  And now Kakata will too.  When I return to American I will wonder about Princess, David, Latricia, Prince… so so many people.

I finally got my clothes from Prince and they’re gorgeous.  Three days late and on my third time trying to get them today, Madison waved me in to sit.  Prince disappeared outside and I studied the posters.  Twenty minutes later they were still working.  Five treadle sewing machines and three men in a room that’s maybe ten feet by ten feet.  “Price, do you want me to go and come back?” I asked.  “Wait small,” he begged.  “We want to talk to you.”  They are all refugees from Sierra Leone and Price does not actually like to sew.  It’s just how he’s making money while in school.

“I want to be a business man,” he said.   I smiled and laughed.  “But you already are!”  “An international business man,” he clarified.

He’ll be in 12th grade this year.