books

Today I read with the kids from Mr. Popper’s Penguins. It’s a fun story with great images and amazing feats of strange animals. In keeping with Teacher Liz’s way of doing things, I asked questions, explained what was happening, defined many words and then showed the few but unique pictures. Did the children get it? I hope so and probably enough to say they read a book about penguins who slid down ladders on their stomaches. Even if their reading comprehension on Auntie Sarah’s pop quiz was poor, the neurons were firing, they were chuckling and learning new words, and each one heard a new way of expressing a story. Nothing like exaggeration and outrageous events to make a fun tale to tell.
I especially like the part in the book when all the kids huddled really close to me, lookin at the picture and rubbing my back. I could be hired out for that job again, I think.

In the past couple weeks, Liz and the team have gone through every book in our possession to sort the wheat from the chaff so to speak. The really good wheat is to be sent to Uganda to the primary school. I marvel at how much I love books and reading (remember every day off since I got back to the choir has been spent at a bookstore). I’m now discovering a deeper and profound way of reading that keeps me thinking about the book long after I’ve put it down or finished the final page. While I have sought after books that are insightful and also a good story, I appreciate even more how key sentences just jump off the page and strike my heart.
“ Cover yourself with the dust of your rabbi’s feet.” (Velvet Elvis, Rob Bell)

I pray that these kids will also develop a deep love for books. As with most things they have here in the States, the children do genuinely appreciate the library they have and excitedly “check” out materials to read and study. The seemingly abundant options prompts some to bring me a book to read at breaks.

If I counted my “Mirembe House Library” alone, I would count over 20 books in my possession. Those just a few selections to occupy the next weeks. Despite all my adventures through literature, I’m not sure I can really imagine a life without books. I say grace for my food everyday; maybe I should say grace for the “meal” feeding my brain, page by page.