Part Of The Family

Maja our family dog loves me. He follows me almost everywhere. It’s probably because sometimes I secretly feed him scraps and ‘cause I’m the only one that shows him love and pets him. Sometimes he’ll run up to me and I’ll see he wants to play and he’ll bring his paws up onto my legs but I have nothing to play with him with. I threw a stick but he did not get it.

My mother told me she hired a photographer in the village to come to take a family portrait of us this Sunday before church.

She told me she wants me to be in it. She wants to be able to show a picture of me to her family in Eastern Cape. She told me, “Carly….I’ve never met anyone like you before.”

She’s discovered the wonder of my IPOD. I’ve played her some religious songs I thought she’d like and wrote down the words for her so she can follow along as she sings. She loves it so much. I’ll hear her doing chores around the house humming and singing “I’ll Fly Away” or “Down To The River to Pray” from O Brother Where Art Thou or James Taylor “You Can Close Your Eyes.” I recently introduced her to “God Is Tryin’ To Tell You Something” from The Color Purple. She can’t get enough of it. It’s SO adorable! It makes me so happy to see her so enlivened!