Reading Frenzy

The reading frenzy hasn’t quite caught on as much as I would have liked, but I do have a few loyal readers nonetheless. Kebby, the boys’ caretaker, is still getting on some of the boys to keep reading at night, and I’m doing the same for the girls.

Wendy aka Mrs. MVP (did you google image search that one?) is still rocking and rolling. She finished the Ben Carson autobiography, as well as some other super crappy young adult novel about a boy in the Depression-era Southeast. Booooring. Luckily, she has now moved on to a very decent young adult novel called “Mercy’s Birds” about an outcast teenager who wears all black and dyes her hair black and mopes around all the time, etc. etc. As you might imagine, it’s a little difficult for a young girl that has never been out of her small village in southern Africa to relate to some of the things we’re reading, but I’m trying to explain things as best I can and I think she’s learning a lot.

Vivian is another one of my loyal readers these days. She’s 13 and in grade seven at the Namumu Community School. Vivian has a big stuttering problem. It shows up from time to time when she’s speaking but is most prevalent when she’s reading. Since Noah in “The Notebook” fixed his stammering problem by reading Walt Whitman out loud I’m hoping we can take care of Vivian’s problem in the same way (that’s right, I’ve seen the Notebook, wanna fight about it?).

Right now, Vivian is reading a young adult book about three bratty teenage girls who go on some camping trip and talk incessantly about boys and other such things. Not really my cup of tea, but Vivian seems to like it. Again, relating to the material is a bit of a problem for Vivian, but she’s still enjoying things.

People have asked me in the past if there’s anything that is needed at Namumu that they could send through the mail. Some have suggested books. I’ve always said that I thought the cost of sending heavy books might be a bit too high, but I’m going to go ahead and take that back. I think Namumu could use a few more children’s books and young adult books. We have some of both here, but the selection is pretty limited.

I think we’d all agree that it’s important to keep these kids reading. Many of them are motivated and want to read, but there just aren’t enough books to go around.

If you’d like to talk about ways to help out, shoot me an email at ssc2x@virginia.edu.