Sheila peeped through the aeroplane window and all she could see were puffy clouds. She felt as if she had been flying forever. She did not want the aeroplane to land in Bamako, she wanted it turn around and take her back to Paris to her real home. She saw the birds flying past the plane and thought how lucky they were. They could come and go wherever they pleased with nobody to tell them what do to.
The plane landed in Bamako at sunrise. Sheila’s mother was there to pick her up at the airport. Sheila felt like crying. What was she going to like in this strange land? All she knew was her cosy life in Paris. Her mother had accepted a job at a big bank in Bamako and they had moved. As they drove to their new home, Sheila’s mother showed her the beautiful skies, the tall trees and people smiling all over the street.
“This is where our ancestors come from,” said her mother, gleefully. Sheila did not care. All she wanted was to go back to Paris to her cosy home and the friends that she knew. She promised she would send her friends letters everyday because she did not want to make any new friends in Bamako.
The next day, Sheila went to her new school. Sheila’s teacher was a very tall man who was very kind to her. He introduced her to a girl called Chloe. Chloe looked so much like her. They could be cousins! Chloe introduced her to her classmates. She met people from Mali, Zimbabwe, China and even France. Everybody was very different and special. Sheila did not know that there were so many different people in the world. They spoke very different languages as they came from different countries around the world. They all wore very different clothes from hers. The colours of their clothes were even more than the colours of the rainbow!
“You are lucky!” Chloe told Sheila, “Today we are having Culture Day and you can see the things that make everyone special.”
Sheila had a delicious lunch that day; they ate a special pie she was told was a recipe from Ireland. Sheila sat and watched the show on the stage. She saw five Indian girls do a special dance wearing special sparkling dresses they called saris. The dancing reminded her of the graceful birds she had seen while she was on the plane. Another girl from America then recited a poem about her ancestors who had been brought to America and had fought hard for their freedom. Chloe told a folktale that they used to tell around the fires before Bamako was even discovered. The last performance was a South African singer who told everyone to stand up. She taught everyone the lyrics of the song and the whole crowd was singing and dancing. Even Sheila was now singing in this different language.
When Sheila got home, all she could think about was writing a letter to her friends back in Paris telling them about the new world she had seen, the different people she had met and the new song she had learned. She was now pleased with the new place she was in and even decided that she would make a few friends.
Read – My Dark Culture – A Children’s Story by Moses Tololo, Zambia
——-
The Writers Space Africa(WSA) Magazine is published by a team of professionals and downloadable for free. If you would like to support our work, please buy us coffee – https://www.buymeacoffee.com/wsamagazine
Thank you for this story which captures so we’ll the emotions of children who “have” to move, often without being consulted because parents are chasing their personal goals. It helped me understand my own children who have often struggled with our frequent moving. Way to go Kudzi!