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Today I had the pleasure of meeting Sabir (12), Hajir (10), Fatna (8), and Jeffrey (6). The first three children came with their parents a month ago from a refugee camp in South Sudan. They seemed to be relaxed and happy, talking with each other, often smiling shyly and then broadly throughout the visit. It turns out that they do speak Arabic rather than Swahili but in a dialect that the local Arabic translator has great difficulty understanding. Jeffrey grew up speaking Spanish and English and is a lively playful 6 year old. My friends are teaching Sabir, Hajir, and Fatna to spell their names. English will be the first language in which they learn to write and read. All the children wrote their names and three of them drew pictures.
All were fascinated by my autoharp and took turns playing it for the most of the two hours that I visited them. Sabir and Jeffrey spent the longest time with the autoharp. I left it for Sabir, Hajir, and Fatna to play with while they and their parents are staying in my friends' downstairs apartment. Jeffrey was just visiting for the day.
Early this morning, I finished non-dominant hand Mandala #75:
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That drawing from 1983
was inspired by this photo of Sara and Bob Dylan:
2 comments:
It was good of you to leave the autoharp.
How kind of you to leave the autoharp for the kids to play with. I'm hoping you'll visit with them again and let us know how the family is adjusting to life here. Thank you, am.
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