How my life resembles Anne of Green Gables.

 Number 1. “Mathews proud of the way I look”

There is an older man here that is as sweet as pumpkin pie, he is not Didinga but from another tribe in Sudan. He speaks strictly Arabic and I am only learning Didinga, so our words are few. “Ita kweis?” “Ai, ana kweis” (“Are you good?” “Yes, I’m good.”) Kim and I christened him ‘Mathew Cuthbert’ because he is just the cutest old man ever. Well Mathew is a tailor and true to his (christened) name, he made me a skirt. Previously, I had wanted a skirt I could wear to school every day and had asked if I could get one made.

One day Mathew Cuthbert brings me over to his little shack where he does his sewing and hands me a mass of the green school material. At a closer look I saw that he had made me a school skirt. I was so thankful, How very sweet! “Quise?” asked he, “Ai Quaise!” I said. So, the green skirt is pleated to high heaven and makes me look like I weigh two hundred pounds as it shoots out from my stomach. I could hide a small family of elephants under that skirt but never the less…I wear it every school day.

Number two: “I dyed it!”

34 goals this year, 34, all written down on note book paper, pinned to my mud wall. 29 accomplished, four yet to complete and one utter fail! Number 25: “Grow my hair out.”

Last month I was in a Nairobi super market in Kenya. There to my astonishment was hair dye for white people. I looked at the brown dye and walked away telling myself “No, Abbi you are not dying your hair!”  Three hours later I had my head over a bathtub and some ladies saying “How exciting!” Exciting my foot! I am an idiot! Well, the first couple days it seemed to be a nice chestnut brown but for some reason the bottom of my hair seemed darker then the top…Days past and the top got lighter and the bottom turned completely black. I looked like a witch gone wrong. People where looking at me and saying “Why is this part so dark and the other so light? I wore it up, I wore hats…People still noticed! Finally Kim, told me straight…"You have to cut it off, Abbi…It looks terrible!” I knew she was right…I had to cut it.

Well, Anne pulled it off much better… I look like a two hundred pound boy.