Skip to main content

A Small Tribute


Fatimata- I have to write about her.  She is one of my nieces, as well as one of my favorite girls.  She just has so many wonderful characteristics that most 4(ish) year olds don’t have.  She is so loving to me, babies, animals, and the other kids (most of the time). At the same time, she strives to always get whatever it is that she wants, and she’s not afraid to fight for it.  She knows what she wants, and despite her small size, she’ll force her way into it. 
She’s kind to animals (which is abnormal here), but she doesn’t stop just because of other people. She eats dirt/rocks (which actually might just be a sign of iron deficiency), but she does so with zest. So much spunk, in such a small package.  My favorite quality about her, though, is her “I-don’t- care-what-anybody-thinks-of-me,- I’ll-do-what-I-want” attitude.  Most of the time, she’s just plain weird, but I love it. The other day, I saw her spinning in circles and eating by herself.  I can’t help but smile at that kind of confidence and sublime happiness. She’s a role model to me, and she’s only two feet tall.

Comments

  1. NikkiOctober 19, 2010 at 1:43 PM

    Fatimata reminds me of a little blonde Twobaab who has an "I don't care what anybody thinks I do what I want" attitude... oh yea and is weird most of the time too. No wonder you like her.

    I LOVE YOU!!

    ReplyDelete
  2. HadielOctober 21, 2010 at 12:33 AM

    This is an amazing post Anna. It's amazing how great the children make us feel here!

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

If you’ve ever wanted to make a celebrity, all you need to do is put a white person on a black continent.   From the second I got off the plane, I have gotten more attention than I ever could have wanted.   The villagers truly treat me like I’m Paris Hilton-- everyone thinks I am super rich (since I’m an American), as well as stupid (probably due to the fact that I have the language proficiency of a 2 year old).   So, I’ve been in Senegal for almost a month now, and things are just as crazy as the day I arrived.   First of all, this is nothing like South Africa.   South Africa, despite its internal problems, was physically beautiful.    Mountains and vineyards were everywhere I turned (except for in the townships).    Here in Senegal, it’s trash and cinderblocks that beckon me everywhere I turn.    I’m sure it is beautiful in its own way, and I can only hope that I will soon begin to be to love Senegal as much as I will always l...
6 comments
Read more

SENEGAL MEETS RICK

My Dad just came!! I feel like I was preparing for his visit for so long, and then it just happened so fast. He came in to help with an eye clinic Peace Corps was putting on in my regional capital. Dad at Work We had a group of American doctors come over to perform surgeries/consultations and to teach the Senegalese doctors an appropriate method for removing cataracts. We got my Dad involved, and bing, bang, boom…Poppa Brooks comes to town. It was so cool to not only just see him but to also work with him.  Ya’ll should have seen him.   Patients gathered early and they stayed late.   He was like robot-seeing patients from sun-up to sundown. It was a task just to get him to take a lunch break. I was so proud.   His equipment was old, and his patients were anything but normal, but he tirelessly checked eye after eye, and set them up for surgery.   I mainly translated or filled prescriptions for glasses, but I did get to see a couple surgeries, and I even to...
3 comments
Read more

Amerik to Here! And Back!

They    came. They saw. And they conquered. Jenn and Margaret just left the land o’ Pulaar for the land o’ plenty.    They gave up three weeks of their real-world lives to see what encompasses my semi-real-world life here. It was three weeks that sped by too fast for sure.    We laughed. We cried. We drank. We ate. We declined marriage proposals.    We WERE Senegal.    They did it all, and to be perfectly honest, I definitely didn’t make it easy for them.    To call them troopers, isn’t even close to enough.    In short, they faced not only culture shock, but also cases of the African stomach, threats of gangrene, intense sunburn, broken-down transportation, midnight goat and donkey calls, and among other things, the craziness of the 4 th  of July annual Peace Corps Senegal party. We started the trip in Dakar. They arrived early in the morning, fresh-eyed and energized for all Senegal’s opportunities.  ...
4 comments
Read more