My best friend's name is Habtamu Tsinga.  (Took me a very long time how to learn how to say ... let alone, spell ... it!)  He is 11 years old.  (I am ten.)

I have known Habtamu since he was seven years old, when his parents adopted him from Ethiopia, which is a country in Africa.   He is a very nice kid; I really enjoy playing with him or just being around him!

Habtamu is a very cool kid with a good head on his shoulders.  He is going to be in the fifth grade.  (I'll be in fourth come September.)  We'll probably end up going to the same school.  

Habtamu may have a very funny-sounding name or talk with an accent or look different than me (he's African and is dark-brown in color; I am white and have light skin), but basically he is like any other kid.  He loves basketball, baseball, soccer (only he calls it "football"; he is very good on the soccer field!), and field hockey, loves to dance or sing, draw, and write poems or stories.  He loves to play on the computer and annoy his two younger sisters, who are eight and five.

Sometimes people make fun of Habtamu because he has such a weird sounding name, but I stick up for him each and every time.  I tell the bullies to leave him alone or I will beat them up (not really, but I tell them to stop).  I know the teasing hurts his feelings.  They also pick on Habtamu because he is adopted, but to me that shouldn't matter.  People should be glad that someone cared enough to take him and raise him as their own kid because his family back in Africa couldn't take care of him.

Habtamu doesn't really like to talk about his family back in Africa.  It makes him very sad, but then he sees how lucky he is now because the family he has loves him and takes care of him.  I think it's neat that his parents loved him enough to take him in as their own kid.  They treat him good and they give him clothes to wear, food to eat, and a place to sleep at night.  

Sometimes Habtamu and I like to pretend we're brothers besides being best friends.  He and I spend just about every weekend at each other's houses and his family and mine know each other very well; we have all become very good friends.

Well, I am going to go.  I have church in the morning.  I will write in here again soon; I hope you enjoyed reading about my best friend!  I happen to think he's very special!