June 21, 2005
Les stylos
Senegalese children don't ask tourists for money or candy: they ask for pens. Had I known this before, I had taken a whole suitcase of them with me...
I gave the only pen I had with me to Ousmane who kindly signed my notebook before running happily away with his new "stylo", proudly showing it to all his friends in the Dakar suburb.
I hope he grows up to be very famous. I'll sell the signed notebook on eBay then :-)
Posted by claudia
Comments
I did a bit of reading and discovered that many children in Senegal aren't able to receive a quality education because of a shortage of funds and school supplies. There's an article covering how Western Union donated a million pencils to school children in Senegal to help their education. Apparently, "providing something as simple as a single pencil can put undue financial burden on the typical Senegalese family."
Only 58% of children go to primary school, but the classes are often overcrowded, and the conditions are poor.
I think your donation of a pen may have helped more than most people can imagine. :)
Posted by alkam at June 21, 2005 11:27 PM
Hi
Interessar! Quantos países você visitou?
** Just used babelfish translation!! **
How are you?
Dhasarathy
Posted by Dhasarathy at June 22, 2005 09:22 AM