Sopai!

I pray your cattle are well.  This is your little Maasai friend, Adia Grace Shwange, writing.  I am well; I trust you are too ...

I am still in the orphanage.  I haven't been adopted yet, but I remain hopeful.  There are a few families who still act interested, so I am praying.  Having a family is still my biggest wish.

I am nearly nine summers old.  I am no longer so little.  I am turning into a big girl; soon, perhaps, very soon, I shall be a grown woman.  I am nearly old enough now for marriage; girls my age would be learning to do the tasks expected of them and make themselves pleasing for a potential male suitor.

Alas, I don't know if anybody would even want me.  I have withered legs that cause me to walk with crutch-sticks attached to my arms.  I also wear ugly braces on my legs; they remind me of metal cages.  My legs were born this way; I have never known what it is like to walk or run under my own power.  

I sometimes dream of my real mamma and papa.  I wonder if they even think of me.  I think of them all the time and sometimes I turn sad because they gave me up.  They knew I wasn't like the others, so they left me to die.  Yet God saw for me to be taken to an orphanage, where I have been for quite a while now; it's the only life I have ever known.

At least I am not alone in my sadness: I have many good frends here, and the orphanage ladies, they take very good care of the children.

They see that us kids go to school or have three good square meals a day.  They make sure we get cared for if we get sick or hurt, and they make sure we have clean clothes and underwear.  

Well, I hate to go, but I'm at school as I write this and Mr. Nuzinga is eyeballing me again.  He wants me to work on my English, not fooling around by writing in my book of words.  Before I get whipped, i must go.  I will try to write in here another time when he isn't looking at me.  It really makes me uncomfortable!

Bye and God bless!  This is your friend Adia saying so long!

~Adia Shwange, Kenya, Africa.