next summer

early this year, the boys and i were on the way to school, listening to NPR. there was an article on the Congo, on how the people there were suffering in poverty, with no education, clean water, medicine, food, or homes. Tiger piped up that he felt very sad for these people, and that he wanted to do something to help, even if it was just to send a card, like the ones we had signed from Amnesty International to send to political prisoners, reading "you are not forgotten."

over the past several years, the boys have expressed serious interest in having a sister, "twins, so we can each ahve our own baby sister to take care of," and have been so forthcoming about wanting to help and take care of it that at times i felt as though i were being viewed as a breeding machine. they have not lost their desire to increase our family by two more, and even though i have occaisional baby-cravings, i'm not inclined to go through the whole man-in-the-wings thing that usually accompanies it.

the new computer being set up, Tiger has more and more wanted to go online to research things. of course, at first he wanted to go to the Disney store, or play games at pbskids.org. But instead, i pointed him to the Un site, to the government site of our local community, to the local newspaper, and he is only allowed to reasearch these things. this has been a great thing for him. he even reads some of the UN articles and journals to Dragon, who sits near Tiger's computer chair in rapt attention, with no small amount of awe.

They have come to want to go to the Ivory Coast of Africa. They want to see the diamond and gold markets of Sierra Leon, and to visit the children there, to touch them, hold their hands, learn their stories, to remind them that they are not forgotten. They want to see how they can help, to listen to what the children there have to say. They ask me how these children have any hope. They care.

i am considering seeing if i can get a community school contingent of parents to join me in going to Sierra Leon next year. We will have to save a great deal to finance this ourselves, but after talking with the boys, it's definitely how they want to spend next summer. I am more than a little intimidated by the prospect, but am inspired in the extreme by their desire to do this.

They are convinced that they will find their sisters there. They just might, at that.