"today you are you, that is truer than true. there is no one aliver who is youer than you" dr. seuss
Tuesday, December 16, 2008
Monday, December 15, 2008
once upon a time
this is a fairy tale about a shy, skinny girl named jo, who grew up in a small town in africa called bulawayo. she was the first of 3 girls and she lived in a little, yellow house with a white wall. her dad worked very hard and her mom stayed at home. mom was a good cook and loved to bake. she made biscuits, pies, and her specialty - chocolate cake! but the girls hated it when mom would give them cake for school lunch. "ah man - cake AGAIN! anyone want to trade?"
jo and her family loved dogs - pooch was a feisty white poodle (jo didn't name him pooch); sheila, a bull terrier - baby sister named her after the cartoon She-Ra (as in He-Man, and She-Ra, but she couldn't pronounce She-Ra when she was little hence Sheila); and the family favorite, teddy. he was just a mutt but when he was brown and chunky and cuddly just like a teddy bear. they loved him the best.
even though jo was a shy girl she had lots of friends. in elementary school she made friends who would last the rest of her life. she wasn't too excited about the green school uniform she had to wear with those ugly brown shoes. but she always loved the first day of school because it meant a new school case (on which her dad would print her name in white), and new books (that had to be taken home and wrapped in brown paper and plastic)...to this day she still loves to wrap things - a skill she learned way back then.
elementary school was fun, but high school was the best. she was nervous in the beginning because her mom and dad wanted her to go to a private girls school. she thought only snobs and mean girls went there and she wasn't a snob or a mean girl...but she gave it a try anyway and LOVED it! it was a small school with about 500 students at the most. she made so many good friends and had so many, many wonderful memories like the first day of cookery class when her and her best friend put ALL the milk in the scone mixture so that it was just a sticky mess. they tried to hide it from the teacher but it was no use... she always happened to break the sewing machine needles in sewing class and mrs. lewis would just shake her head at poor little jo. she loved english. her favorite teachers were mrs. edington and mrs. jones (best english teachers ever). art was also a subject she enjoyed.
jo didn't do so well on the sports field though. in elementary school she was a left wing on the field hockey team. mom would always come to watch the games but jo didn't score any goals. ahhhh. in high school she had to do cross country, but she would always wait for the teacher to run ahead and then she would walk in the back with her friends and gossip (so much more fun than running). she played social tennis which was more like telling mr. harley jokes than playing any tennis. ps - mr. harley used to sell homemade fudge during history. best fudge ever.
jo wasn't very good at learning other languages either. her mom and most of her family could speak ndebele, and some of her cousins spoke shona but not jo. she even tried to learn french in high school, but after 4 years all she could say was "dankie" - no wait thats afrikaans. jo couldn't speak afrikaans either.
jo was always very close to her family - she spent more time with them than her friends. most of her mom's family lived in bulawayo while her dad's family lived in the capital city, harare. jo liked going to her grandparents house. her grandpa was very proud of his garden. he grew all kinds of fruits and vegetables like grapes, oranges, peaches, mangoes, spinach, mealies (like corn, but better). her granny would also make her most favorite treat in the whole wide world - marsi. jo loved to eat marsi and sadza. come to think of it, eat jo loved to eat a lot of things back then, but magically she stayed skinny. it worried her mom sometimes. at one point her grandparents even had a couple of cows and a couple of horses. when jo was 16 her parents moved to an even smaller town in botswana called francistown so jo and one of her sisters lived with her grandparents for a while. its wasn't so bad, it prepared her for the day when she would move far, far away.
the years passed by too quickly, and one day jo moved away to a mysterious land called "california". after she left so did most of her friends and her family. they spread to the ends of the earth. then something very sad happened...the beautiful country that she once called home slowly began to wither away because greedy, selfish people did what was best for themselves and not the country.
when jo thinks about her home, about her friends, about her family and about her experiences she feels so grateful and blessed. she knows one day zimbabwe will be whole again and she dreams of the day when all of her family will be together again.
the end.
jo and her family loved dogs - pooch was a feisty white poodle (jo didn't name him pooch); sheila, a bull terrier - baby sister named her after the cartoon She-Ra (as in He-Man, and She-Ra, but she couldn't pronounce She-Ra when she was little hence Sheila); and the family favorite, teddy. he was just a mutt but when he was brown and chunky and cuddly just like a teddy bear. they loved him the best.
even though jo was a shy girl she had lots of friends. in elementary school she made friends who would last the rest of her life. she wasn't too excited about the green school uniform she had to wear with those ugly brown shoes. but she always loved the first day of school because it meant a new school case (on which her dad would print her name in white), and new books (that had to be taken home and wrapped in brown paper and plastic)...to this day she still loves to wrap things - a skill she learned way back then.
elementary school was fun, but high school was the best. she was nervous in the beginning because her mom and dad wanted her to go to a private girls school. she thought only snobs and mean girls went there and she wasn't a snob or a mean girl...but she gave it a try anyway and LOVED it! it was a small school with about 500 students at the most. she made so many good friends and had so many, many wonderful memories like the first day of cookery class when her and her best friend put ALL the milk in the scone mixture so that it was just a sticky mess. they tried to hide it from the teacher but it was no use... she always happened to break the sewing machine needles in sewing class and mrs. lewis would just shake her head at poor little jo. she loved english. her favorite teachers were mrs. edington and mrs. jones (best english teachers ever). art was also a subject she enjoyed.
jo didn't do so well on the sports field though. in elementary school she was a left wing on the field hockey team. mom would always come to watch the games but jo didn't score any goals. ahhhh. in high school she had to do cross country, but she would always wait for the teacher to run ahead and then she would walk in the back with her friends and gossip (so much more fun than running). she played social tennis which was more like telling mr. harley jokes than playing any tennis. ps - mr. harley used to sell homemade fudge during history. best fudge ever.
jo wasn't very good at learning other languages either. her mom and most of her family could speak ndebele, and some of her cousins spoke shona but not jo. she even tried to learn french in high school, but after 4 years all she could say was "dankie" - no wait thats afrikaans. jo couldn't speak afrikaans either.
jo was always very close to her family - she spent more time with them than her friends. most of her mom's family lived in bulawayo while her dad's family lived in the capital city, harare. jo liked going to her grandparents house. her grandpa was very proud of his garden. he grew all kinds of fruits and vegetables like grapes, oranges, peaches, mangoes, spinach, mealies (like corn, but better). her granny would also make her most favorite treat in the whole wide world - marsi. jo loved to eat marsi and sadza. come to think of it, eat jo loved to eat a lot of things back then, but magically she stayed skinny. it worried her mom sometimes. at one point her grandparents even had a couple of cows and a couple of horses. when jo was 16 her parents moved to an even smaller town in botswana called francistown so jo and one of her sisters lived with her grandparents for a while. its wasn't so bad, it prepared her for the day when she would move far, far away.
the years passed by too quickly, and one day jo moved away to a mysterious land called "california". after she left so did most of her friends and her family. they spread to the ends of the earth. then something very sad happened...the beautiful country that she once called home slowly began to wither away because greedy, selfish people did what was best for themselves and not the country.
when jo thinks about her home, about her friends, about her family and about her experiences she feels so grateful and blessed. she knows one day zimbabwe will be whole again and she dreams of the day when all of her family will be together again.
the end.
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