Wonderful Sondi

Sondi felt lucky that her parents could send her to school. She lived in a tiny village in South Africa near the ocean. In Africa, not everyone could go to school, and many of the children in her village had never even been to school.

Every morning, she walked the long walk from her village to the big town, as her grandfather called it, to the red brick building where her teacher waited for her and the other children. Sondi was older than most of them, and she was only nine.

In the big town, Sondi watched the people as they went about their daily trades. People in the open market. People in rickety trucks, people on bikes. People with oxen. People with donkeys. Some people just walking. She was part of their busy world, but Sondi knew she was there for the best reason. Vocabulary, math, reading and health. Every day was different and exciting, but one thing never changed. As soon as school was over, her classmates would run out into the street, smiling, laughing, shouting, jumping, eager to play the games they loved after the long day. And each time they would beg her to come and play.

"Sondi, come! Play stick ball with us! Play chase! Sondi! Let us skip the rope today! Sondi, what do you do after school? Why won't you stay and play with us?"

"Come and see," she would answer with a nod and a wink.

But they never did.

Then she would smile and start the long walk home.

Today was no different.

"What! Is! The! Rush! Sondi?" They chanted like a song.

"Come and see," Sondi exclaimed.

"Sondi! Today we will come with you!"

Sondi laughed with joy and they all ran, following her down the path to her village. Her grandfather saw them and waved.

Sondi ran on, past small adobe houses and down the dirt road through the village to her own small home. When they trotted up, her friends were very surprised to find all the little children of the village waiting near Sondi's mother, tiny baby brother, and little sister. The children gathered by Sondi with happy excitement and hugs, before sitting down around her.

Sondi pulled a book from her bag and began to read aloud to them. After the story, Sondi took out a small chalk board and began to teach them how to read and say letters and numbers. When they finished, Sondi and her friends played stick ball with the children of the village.

Later Sondi told her friends, "They wait for me every day, to come and teach them what I learned at school. I cannot stop and play, when I know they are waiting."

"This is a wonderful thing you do Sondi!" Her friends all shouted and clapped, chanting; "Wonderful Sondi! Wonderful Sondi! Wonderful Sondi!"

And from that day on, when Sondi left school to take the long walk home, that was what she heard.

THE END