Reading

My heart was deeply touched today as I spent the afternoon with some of Pastor Emmy's kids. I pulled out a simple children's storybook that I had salvaged from the junk pile at the International School in Rwanda, the kids loved it and must have read it 5 times each. It was "If You Give A Mouse Your Lunchbox," from the If You Take A Mouse to School series - great simple little book actually. My heart nearly broke though when after reading through the story once, Roger, a boy of 8 or 9, went off to dig through an old box to find their only storybook. It was a well worn Baby Bop (from Barney) paperback picture book where all the pages were falling out. He then read that one over several times, until I brought them an additional book from my secret Christmas stockpile. I could not even imagine a childhood without books. It was crushing and humbling all at the same time.

Vowing to find additional children's books for both the family and the kids at the school, I searched the entire downtown section of the city but was quite disheartened when the few bookstores I managed to find sold only dusty school books and outdated language primers.