Dance...or whales?

Wide-eyed, on a bus for the first time

About the internet and Alvin AIley:
My mind went totally blank when I was trying to think of
what to show them. The first image of the Outer World.
Only two things came to mind, after literally a
whole minute of just sitting there.  I thought:  dance, or, whales.
And I decided on dance.  Whew.  The girls stared and were silent-- a
lot to take in.

The conference is going splendidly - actually, it is AMAZING. There is
no doubt that these girls are having the experience of a lifetime.  I
have NEVER seen Hadiza smile this much.  The other volunteers noticed
too- they keep commenting on how happy my girl looks.

There are 12 girls total. I'm
in charge of 5 of them- Hadiza, plus Chaffatou, Zalefa, Aminatou, and
Tahiratou.  They've already opened up so much from day one-- at first
they were so quiet and timid, and now they're playing and asking
questions, laughing and teasing me about stuff. It's great.  Yesterday
they spent most of the day on job shadows- I took Hadiza and Aminatou
to shadow a female doctor at the maternity clinic of the hospital,
Zalefa shadowed a female military officer, and Tahiratou went to
either the post office or a utilities company.  In the mornings,
before sessions start, the girls have stayed busy with coloring books,
and in the evenings they stay up super late playing bingo. We also
played musical chairs, which was A HUGE SMASHING HIT that was
requested again the next night.  I was too tired to play- how lame.
But maybe tonight. We're going to show them a movie!  And tomorrow
we're having a party, and we're gonna eat lots of MEAT.  Yeah!