Prairie Prose

Good at reading -- not blogging.

Really like this book and would recommend it to most anyone.

I Will Always Write Back by Caitlin Alfirenka and Martin Ganda

The subtitle "How One Letter Changed Two Lives" says it all and more. What started as a pen pal program in seventh grade English turned into much more for Caitlin. Caitlin chose Zimbabwe, a country starting with "Z" even though she knew nothing about it or had any idea what life was like in Zimbabwe. She was born and lived in Hatfield, Pa, a suburb of Philadelphia.

Martin received her letter. In a class of 50 students, only 10 would receive a letter. Martin was in Group One, one of the lucky ones. Martin's mother made sure that Martin had the best teacher in first grade, where he finished top of his class. In third grade, he dropped to number two and his mother told him he must always be number one. School was his only way. Martin's family was poor like many others, not as poor as his mother's family. She had to drop out of school after fifth grade because they could not pay the fees and go to work for room and board because they could not even afford to feed her. Martin was lucky, his parents could pay the school fees.

Their first letters were very general, however Martin included a promise to continue writing and hoped she would do the same. Martin assumed Caitlin was white and Caitlin assumed Martin was black. Other than that each was pretty naive about the other's life.

Caitlin sent a school photo with her next letter and asked Martin to send her one. Martin had no idea how he would send her a picture. They were very expensive. His mother has a picture taken two years before when Martin had won an award. He was in his school uniform. He sent this - the family's only picture- to Caitlin. She figured he as wealthy since the only people she knew who wore uniforms went to private schools or Catholic school. His comments about "developing country" and "high density suburb" didn't really click. She sent him a one dollar bill because he asked her. Martin's mother was amazed. She must be very wealthy. The one dollar was worth 24 Zimbabwe dollars and soon bought two weeks of groceries for the family.

They exchanged six or eight letters a year.   It wasn't until Spring of her eighth grade year that Caitlin started to put the clues together.  Martin wrote her a short letter on the back of an ice cream wrapper, the only paper he had.  He told how he had been expelled from school for not paying fees and was working to help feed his family.  She sent $20 babysitting money thinking it would help buy groceries or stamps. Little did she know it was more than enough to pay the school fees and buy groceries. 

Caitlin sent $40 in the next letter.  Her generosity spread to her family and their generosity kept Martin in school and lifted a family out of extreme poverty.