Samdi soir-Saturday evening

Cécile


I really shouldn't be this wound up, but I am. Or, I should be wound up...but for other reasons.

The night before a trip to Sénégal with World Vision is excellent cause to be excited. And I am, no question. But isn't it the way of things to be distracted with the temporary while on the verge of the extraordinary? I went to the archery range this morning, hoping to work it out on the target.

Converging on my poor gray matter are the three assignments that I have due this weekend for my coursework. Well, I got one of them completed. The least demanding, but it's a start!

Can we set the obessesion with grades aside for a while to concentrate on the more profound task of meeting a little girl in Africa? I'm hoping her smile when we meet will make my Survey Research paper seem a million miles away.

I just received my first letter from that little girl this week. My husband Jack and I are sponsoring her through World Vision. Cécile is her name and in her letter she told me that she is nine years old and in second grade. Her favorite subject is arithmetic, and she enjoys "playing on cooking" as her favorite game. Sounds like we have nothing in common, but wait! Cécile wants to be a teacher when she grows up. We may have more in common yet!

The children Jack and I have are short, fuzzy, get around on four legs, and snore. I get a kick out of buying new collars, and outrageous T-shirts for them. However, it is an entirely different thing to go shopping for a human girl, and is a privilege I rarely have. What fun it was to spend this rainy, South Florida day with Jack looking for bright, colorful hairbows, bags, coloring books, for Cécile and her sisters. And yes, I got some math flash cards, just for Cécile and her love of math.

Cécile closes her letter to me saying "I hope to hear from you soon." I wonder if she knows that she will have me "en chair et en os" ("in flesh and in bone" as the French say) in the very near future!