Swamirati

Meet Swamirati and mother, father, younger brother, and older sister.



Just at the end of the school day, seven year old Swamirati came to the office to meet me, and I gave her the LJCDS backpack, which she is holding here, with the steps to the library in the background. She held on the that pack tightly all the way home.



As I had before, I purchased a home pack to take to her family and got my instructions from the Danish woman who handles sponsorship at the Usa River campus. Mr. Emmanuel was assigned to be my interpreter and guide and I was told that we three were to ride on the "small purple" bus which would take us to Swamirati's home after dropping off the other students. Since we had a little head start, we had a quiet minute or two in the bus before the students and staff climbed in, and I asked Mr. Emmanuel to explain that I was just the lucky person representing a wonderful, generous and hard-working group of tenth grade students from my school, and that the students worked hard and raised the money to sponsor her. She was shy on the bus ride, but she sat close to me, resting her hand on my arm.

After everyone was dropped off, the bus driver turned off the main road onto a (dirt) road going through a small town of about 2 blocks. Lining the road were shops, and all the activity was on the street. From the furniture painters to the hairdressers to the men at their sewing machines, it was a busy place as all the students on their way home from school and all the shoppers joined the activity. The bus driver asked us to the front row of the bus seats because, as Mr. Emmanuel said, "We will be jumping about" on the deeply rutted road. We drove for about ten minutes along the narrow road, with thick banana groves on either side. Swamirati has a long walk after she gets off the bus. And she is just seven. She directed us to her home, and we pulled into a (dirt) courtyard in front of a fairly large house. It looked more prosperous than I expected, but that was explained later in the visit. The house was being built, and the builder asked the family to live in it as it was being constructed. The mother told us that they would have to leave by the end of the year, because the house would be finished, and the owners would move in. (I made the assumption that the owners wanted people in the house to guard it, to give it that lived in look.) The walls were unfinished, and there was a ladder or two in the hallway off the room where I was received.
The mother and father were waiting, and welcomed me heartily, saying over and over in Kiswahili, "Thank you very much. Thank you very much," and shaking my hand over and over. They did it in the most polite way possible, touching their left hand to the elbow of their right arm-a sign of respect. Swamirati came to life with her family around, and she has a sparkling and warm smile. Mr. Emmanuel explained to the parents that it is a class that sponsors their daughter. And we talked about our school motto and how important it is to develop as a scholar, an artist and an athlete, and above all, to have good character. The sophomores got lots of compliments from this family, certainly well-deserved. I was certainly proud of each of them for making this commitment.
Swamirati (pronounced Swa-mi-la-ti) is a smart girl. She has to be to be accepted at St. Jude's. Admission testing goes on for six Saturdays, and on the first Saturday, 2,000 students arrive for testing! On subsequent Saturdays, the number may drop a bit, but there are never fewer than 600. So to be one of the approximately 200 students accepted, you have to be bright. This girl is, and her father had her exercise book and some worksheets and grading sheet to show me. He just glowed with pride as he passed around her work, marked "excellent!" and "good work!"
This was the most poignant moment for me, seeing a parent so proud of his daughter, so hopeful for her future.



I had put some books (you would expect nothing less, right?) in the back pack, and I read Leo Lionni's "A Color of His Own." to the children. Swamirati read along with me, and so I can tell you that she knows all her colors!



This is a grateful family, and a sweet, engaging first grader. It will be a joy watching her grow and thrive. Thank you, sophomores, for letting me share this with you.