My world is 20 miles wide ...

Click on the pictures to see them
larger and clearer.

It's too far to walk across it in a day, my world is.  I've been to the far side, but only the once that I remember.  It was nice.  We went in a truck because there's a mountain in the way.

The ocean comes right up to the edge of my world, and we swim in it.  Lots.  My daddy sails out on the ocean to fish for us, and he always comes back at the end of the day.  And there are turtles!

I go to school most days of the year, and I'm in the 5th grade now.  I have a big brother and a little sister and a little bitty sister, but she's too little to go to school yet.  Grandpa and grandma live right over there, maybe three houses away.

Our water source is in the middle of the picture, next to
the fellow in the white shirt.  You have to look closely.

We have clean water near the house, right down the road there by the shore.  There's a water faucet there that we all use.  We fill up buckets and bottles and carry them home for cooking and bathing and drinking too.  The water comes from up on the mountain, and it's pretty clean.  The faucet usually works, but if it doesn't, then we go to the river a little further down the road for water.

I haven't seen all of my world.  There's a mountain I haven't seen the top of, and there's a place that has lots of trees and doesn't have roads.  I haven't seen that yet either.

My family is pretty much OK; we have a house with rooms and an awning for the kitchen fire just outside the front door.  The village where we live is mostly friendly.  Dad says the fishing isn't as good as it used to be, and it's hard work.

There's a kiosk down the street that has a television.  When there's electricity, we can stand around the kiosk and watch the TV.  We don't have electricity at home.  There's a supermarket in the capital city, but that's a long way from here.  I haven't been there, but I've heard about it.  That's where cans come from.

Church is right across the street from my house.  We go to mass with mom on Sunday mornings.  The singing is really good.

My uncle, my mom's brother, lives in the capital.  He washes cars for tourists.  Sometimes there aren't any tourists, though.  He has to use crutches to get around.  He gets to come to visit us every year or so.  It's nice when he comes.

Most of the people in my life are pretty nice, I guess.  My teachers at school work hard for us kids.  My school day is only four hours, but the teachers have to do it twice every day.  I go home for the rest of the day and help Mom and maybe play a little.

My world is probably the nicest world around; at least that's what they tell me.  It rains plenty, things grow, and it's pretty nice for kids.  We don't have any really dangerous animals here except maybe the big pigs.  Other parts of Africa aren't so nice.

I have two books!  A friend brought them from Portugal.  We don't have a bookstore.

Sometimes things get tense for the older teenagers.  Sometimes a lot.  I'm not sure why.

Rainy days happen; too much wind sometimes, too.  It's cold then, and dad can't fish when it's really windy.

We're right on the equator, they told me in school; right in the middle of the rest of the world.  Like a belly-button.  :)

 

Less than 50 meters from my house ...