I am loving my work at the library. I have gotten to know a lot of the kids at the school where we take educational story hours. The kids are really getting interested in reading and get excited each week to hear what books we are bringing. There are two questions that I am asked each time I’m there. The first thing they ask me is “do you color your hair?” I am usually surrounded by 5 or 6 little girls that are stroking my hair when that questions comes. My hair is hardly even blond, but in their world everyone is born with dark brown hair and it is unfathomable that I could naturally have this color of hair. I tell the girls that I don’t color my hair, but the next day the question comes again. I think that they are hoping I’m lying and that one of these days I’ll slip up and tell them that I actually do die my hair. The next thing they ask is, “Will you play basketball with us after school?” This has become quite the tradition! After school is over, we head out to the playground, which is actually just a big concrete slab. Playing basketball here takes a lot less skill than it does in the US. There are no basketball hoops, instead we aim for the wrought iron grates over the windows of the school building. In the picture below you can see the “hoops.” One team throws the ball at the left grate and the other team at the right grate. Not only are there no hoops, but there are no rules. Everyone travels like crazy and fouls each other constantly.



When I play with the girls they always make the teams with all the big girls (8 to 10 years old) together and all the little girls with me. Usually I let the big girls win, but then I start to feel bad for all the little girls that are always losing, so every once in a while my team wins. Last week when I was playing with the boys, there was one 10 year old who thought he was pretty awesome at basketball so he chose a 5 year old to be his teammate and took on me along with 2 other 8 years old. We taught him a lesson.