Untukmu Para Pengunjung

When I was a kid and people would ask me what my favourite part of myself was, I would always say my imagination. I've always liked making up stories, and letting my imagination run wild. It's also nice to see someone else's imagination working. I have a friend from Tanzania, and she asked me to help her with her English. She only got to Grade 7. So, we meet and go over dialogues from her textbook and do grammar exercises, but my favourite is when she writes compositions. Of course, in her schooling, everything was very prescriptive - memorize this, copy this, etc. There wasn't much room for creativity. It's wonderful to watch her, as an adult, creating and imagining. She was asked to write a fictitious report on a school club or team. She said that when she was in school she sang in the choir, so we used that as a base. It was wonderful to watch her write this composition, because she got to excited about it. She named the choir Tam Tam ("sweet sweet" in Swahili), and made herself the star singer. She kept laughing and making comments as she was writing, like "wow - I really am a good singer" or "Yes, the choir really is sweet!" She was really picturing herself in the story, and it was a wonderful thing.

And imagine this - tomorrow we're taking a holiday to Kenya and then Rwanda. 2 brand new countries for the McAlisters. I'm so excited!