MY LIBRARIAN IS A CAMEL
How books are brought to children around the world
• INTRODUCTION
Several years ago, I read a newspaper article about a camel in Kenya that was used to bring books to young people who lived in remote desert villages. I wondered how else books might be brought to children in other parts of the world. My research turned up all sorts of "mobile libraries": libraries that moved on legs, on wheels, and by other means.
I was thrilled to learn how far people would go to put books into the hands of young readers. I began to contact librarians in faraway places. They responded by sharing information, personal stories, and photos of their mobile libraries and of the young people who use them. Over time, I assembled a scrapbook of mobile libraries from all over the world.
Developing this book has been a rewarding and exciting experience. From Azerbaijan to Zimbabwe, I discovered people who are passionate about books and who understand the importance of libraries in our lives. One librarian in Azerbaijan explained that the library is "as important as air or water."
Maybe you have been taking your local library for granted, just as I did. Next time you borrow books, think of how lucky you are to be able to choose from all of those free books and to take home as many as you wish.
The librarians and volunteers who bring books by camel or elephant or by boat inspired me. I hope they inspire you, too.
• AUSTRALIA
In Australia, there are more than five thousand libraries. About seventy-two of those libraries are on wheels. Some mobile libraries assume the shape of huge trucks and trailers that carry thousands of books to children who cannot go to a library in a city.
Travis, a librarian, travels on one of the trucks. He stops at schools to talk about books and to tell stories. "Some stories leave children with something to think about," says Travis. "Others bring laughter or tears." Stories can get kids excited about books and reading, so they borrow lots of books. The mobile library that Travis runs is more than a truck. It is a solar-powered high-tech library. The solar panel is on the top of the truck. Inside are six computers and a printer.
The truck comes with three air-conditioning units, two banks of fluorescent lights, nine spotlights, and a stereo system with surround sound. It also features a wheelchair lift, a microwave oven, a small refrigerator, a toilet, and two sinks. All of these units are powered by a bank of constantly recharging batteries. The solar panel provides a small current to the batteries that keeps them alive and running.
•AZERBAIJAN
The children in the Kelenterli refugee settlement can´t sit still when they know that the blue truck is coming. The blue truck library is here, thanks to the hard work of Relief International, an organization that provides relief to victims of natural disasters and civil conflicts.
These children live in poverty, but the blue library truck brings a surge of happiness and curiosity. "It´s a big event when the library comes to town," says the librarian. "It´s a bit of happiness for children who normally don´t have much to look forward to."
This Iibrary-in-a-truck has been bringing books to children for several years. Designed to provide a wide variety of books to young people, two library trucks serve over sixteen hundred students in about twenty-three refugee schools. Their goal is simple: for a few hours each week, the children of Kelenterli and other settlements are given the opportunity to borrow books. In doing so, they feel less isolated from the rest of the country. In other parts of Azerbaijan, there are children who would love to see the blue truck pay them a visit. But, unfortunately, as the trucks travel only through two regions, there are not enough trucks, or books, to reach them all. Relief International is working to change that.
"For us," says the librarian, "the mobile library is as important as air or water."
• CANADA
Nunavut is a huge territory in Canada´s north. As obvious, in the arctic regions, the distances are huge, and many villages are very isolated.
While larger towns have their own public-library buildings, many communities are just too small and have only a virtual library, which offers Internet access. But even if the community does not have any kind of library building, the public library system offers books to everyone in the far north through their Borrower-by-Mail program.
Tyson Anakvik, Colin Igutaaq, James Naikak, and Cameron Ovilok are friends in Nunavut and they all request library books by e-mail or by phone. A mobile library doesn´t bring the books to their village; the books are sent through the mail. The Borrower-by-Mail program will send children any books they´d like to read. If the library doesn´t have a book in its system, librarians will borrow the book from another library in Canada and mail it. They even include a stamped, addressed envelope, so the children won´t have to pay to return the book.
They go for a ride on their sled as they walk to the post office to pick up the books the boys look forward to reading that night. On winter days, the sun does not come above the horizon, and when the thermometer reads minus 50 degrees, the children like to curl up with a good book by the woodstove. While the northern wind howls across the tundra, they read fantasy and action novels.
They can keep their books for up to six weeks. After that, they´ll pack them up and walk to the local post office to mail the books back to the library. Then they´ll check the mail every day until another package arrives with new books to devour in their remote corner of Canada´s Arctic.
• ENGLAND
The Blackpool Beach Library brings books directly to people who are enjoying their summer holiday at the beach. The library is a wheelbarrow!
Two library assistants cart the books up and down the beach. Borrowers needn´t join the Blackpool Library. When they finish reading the books, they simply return them to the wheelbarrow when it comes by another day. The people at the Blackpool Library believe that it is important to promote the joy of reading.
"Libraries are services, not buildings," says one librarian.
So, besides donkey rides and lemonade stands, this beach offers books!
England has other types of mobile libraries as well. Share-a-Book is a children´s mobile library van in Gloucester, a county in England. A librarian travels with the van to the countryside, where children don´t have access to a regular public library. Many children don´t have books at home to read and share with their parents. Share-a-Book has special books for children for whom English is a second language. They also offer toddler story times and take part in special celebrations in the area.
• FINLAND
In the southwest of Finland, there is an archipelago consisting of thousands of rocky islands. Some islands have only summer visitors, but others are populated year-round. People in this area of Finland speak both Finnish and Swedish. Since 1976, the Pargas Library has been bringing books to the people of these islands by book boat.
The boat, called Kalkkolm meaning "Limestone Island" in Swedish, measures 4 meters wide and 12 meters long. It carries about six hundred books. The boat, with a crew consisting of a librarian and an assistant, sails among the islands, making about ten stops. Kids come scrambling down the rocky shores to collect their books. Since winters are severe in Finland, the boat goes out only from May to October. Maj-Len, the chief librarian in Pargas Stad, oversees the operation of the book boat.
"Reading has become very important to our book-boat children," she says. "If the book boat didn´t come, they might not be reading at all. They are always happy to see us and their supply of new books."
• INDONESIA
Among the many islands of Indonesia, rivers are the main means of transportation. So it is no wonder that some libraries here float on rivers. The country has seven floating libraries. The Kalimantan Floating Library consists of a wooden boat, 8 meters long and 3 meters wide. The boat, which is powered by a diesel engine, can carry up to five hundred books.
When the boat first began bringing books to the villages along the river Kahayun, it had to stay until people finished reading their books. That took too much time, so the librarians decided to leave behind containers filled with books. This allowed them to continue traveling the river, bringing books to other villages. Now the children in the villages along the river come running when the library boat tugs upstream. They are all excited about rummaging through a new box of books to read.
In the city of Surabaya, a bicycle library makes its rounds every day. The East Java Library Board decided that a bicycle was the most economical way to deliver books to readers. The library is powered by man and environmentally friendly. The bicycle makes it easy to get around the narrow, winding streets of the city. It carries books and promotes reading around the city, at schools in the countryside, in villages and kampongs, which are urban communities designed to look like villages in the countryside. Children and their parents can borrow books from the bicycle library and exchange them the next time the library visits.
• KENYA
The roads to Bulla Iftin, two hundred miles northeast of Nairobi, are impassable because of the desert sand, even for cars with four-wheel drive. But young people who live in nomadic villages in the area are hungry for books. So librarians use the most economical means of transportation -camels! Library camels are on the road five days a week. They can carry heavy loads and need little water in the heat of the desert. One camel may carry as many as five hundred books, weighing about four hundred pounds. A driver and a librarian divide the books into two boxes. They saddle them on the camel´s back, which is covered with a grass mat for protection. A second camel carries a tent that serves as the library roof.
The students of Bulla Iftin eagerly await the arrival of the camels. When the library caravan finally reaches the village, the children watch as the librarian pitches the tent and displays the books on wooden shelves. The librarian places the grass mats on the ground in the shade of an acacia tree, making a place where the children can sit. The students can treasure their new books for two weeks. When the library camels return, the children can trade their books for new ones.
• MONGOLIA
For centuries, people in Mongolia have led a nomadic lifestyle, moving across the steppe, a vast grass-covered plain, with their herds. Many people are still herders of livestock, moving with their herds as they graze. The life of the nomads has not changed very much since the old days except that nowadays the herders like to use "iron horses," meaning motorbikes, instead of real horses. Very few people have telephones, television, or access to computers, but most people can read. There is almost no illiteracy in this country.
Jambyn Dashdondog is a well-known writer of children´s books in Mongolia. He was looking for a way to bring books to the many children of herders´ families, who live scattered across the Gobi Desert. A horse-drawn wagon (as well as a camel) is used to carry books into the desert. Together with the Mongolian Children´s Cultural Foundation, Mr. Dashdondog was able to obtain a minibus and ten thousand books, mostly donated by Japan. The Japanese books are being translated into Mongolian, and Mr. Dashdondog makes trips with the minibus to bring the books to children in the countryside.
The book tour is called Amttai Nom which means "candy books", because before they share the books, the children are given food, including some sweets. After the children listen to stories and choose books, Mr. Dashdondog asks: "Which was sweeter: books or candies?" And the children always answer: "BOOKS!"
"I just returned from a trip to visit herders´ children in the Great Gobi Desert," said Mr. Dashdondog, who has visited nearly ten thousand children in the past two years. "We covered some fifteen hundred kilometers in two weeks. And this was in winter, so it was cold and snowy. We had no winter fuel for our bus, so we had to use summer fuel, and the fuel froze at night, making the bus stall. But we weren´t cold: the stories and their heroes kept us warm!"
• PAKISTAN
There are not many libraries in Pakistan, and libraries for children are especially rare. Most schools don´t have libraries either. That is why the Alif Laila Bookbus Society ran a children´s library in an old double-decker bus. But in order to reach more children, they needed to put a mobile library on the road. Thanks to help from the Jersey and Guernsey Trust and the United Kingdom´s Save the Children, they now have a very popular bus that travels to schools. The bus is called Dastangou, or Storyteller.
The bus carries about six thousand books in English and Urdu (the two official languages of Pakistan) to children in schools. Some schools get a weekly visit, but in most places, the Storyteller can come only once every two weeks. This bus full of books has opened up a whole new world to children. Afshan, thirteen, says, "I didn´t know what a library looked like before! This bus is magic! It brings stories and books. I just wish it came more often or stayed longer!" Bushna, from eighth grade, says, "When the Storyteller arrives at the gates of our school, we file out of the school in orderly lines and find our books. Then we take them back to our classrooms to read for an hour."
Mrs. Syeda Basarat Kazim is the coordinator of Storyteller. She explains that there aren´t enough books to allow the children to take books home. "If we did, there wouldn´t be enough books to take to the next school."
Tabbassum, twelve, says, "The first time the Storyteller came, I ran to it and picked up a book of poetry. I started copying verses from it because I didn´t know if it would ever come again. But then Miss Nosheen, who travels with the bus, told me not to worry. It would visit every Tuesday. That really made me happy!"
• PAPUA NEW GUINEA
In Papua New Guinea, no roads lead to the remote jungle hamlets or to the schools that serve them. Volunteers from Hope Worldwide, a non-profit charitable organization based in Philadelphia, are committed to bringing books to people in this area of Papua New Guinea. They begin their journey in a four-by-four truck, on a road cut into the steep hillside. After a long, bumpy ride, they eventually come to a village called Mogi-agi, which means "up-and-down road," a perfect description for the surrounding landscape.
At Mogi-agi, students and their teacher file out of the school to greet the volunteers. They are all excited about receiving a new supply of books. But the volunteers aren´t done yet. They still have to reach a further destination deeper in the jungle: the village of Amia. They ford a river in their truck and drive until they can go no farther. Then they unload the boxes of books to take them to the small villages in the highlands. From here they must walk for four hours, up the pass and over several ridges, crossing log bridges while carrying the boxes of books on their shoulders. They head up the valley to where the trail stops. Along the way, people who live along the trail bring sugarcane to the volunteers.
When they finally reach Amia, young people come running to meet them. The volunteers have come to help them start a Library. The young people help carry books and supplies into the school. The volunteers have brought over a hundred books on their backs. And books are not the only things they deliver. They also bring desperately needed medicines, such as antibiotics and aspirin. The people of Amia gratefully read their books and look forward to the next supply.
• PERU
Children in Peru can receive their books in several different, innovative ways.
CEDILI-IBBY Peru is an institution that delivers books in bags to families in Lima. Each bag contains twenty books, which families can keep for a month. The books come in four different reading levels so that children really learn how to read. The project in Spanish is called El Libro Compartido en Familia and enables parents to share the joy of books with their children.
In small, rural communities, books are delivered in wooden suitcases and plastic bags. These suitcases and bags contain books that the community can keep and share for the next three months. The number of books in each suitcase depends on the size of the community.
There are no library buildings in these small towns, and people gather outside, in the plaza, to see the books they can check out. In the coastal regions, books are sometimes delivered by donkey cart. The books are stored in the reading promoter´s home.
In the ancient city of Cajamarca, reading promoters from various rural areas select and receive a large collection of books for their area.
The program is called Aspaderuc. The reading promoter lends these books to his or her neighbors, and after three months, a new selection of books goes out to each area. Books in this system are for children and adults.
And last but not least, Fe Y Alegria brings a collection of children´s books to rural schools. The books are brought from school to school by wagon. The children, who are excited about browsing through the books when they arrive, are turning into avid readers.
• THAILAND
In Omkoi, a region of northern Thailand, there are no schools or libraries. Tribal people cannot read or write. The government of Thailand hopes to change that with a literacy program that includes bringing books to remote villages in the jungle.
A number of these villages can be reached only on foot. This makes transportation difficult, especially during the rainy season. How do you get books to people who need them most, when they live in hard-to-reach mountainous regions of northern Thailand? Elephants!
The Chiangmai Non-Formal Education Center had the idea to use elephants as libraries. Elephants are already being used here to plow the paddy fields and to carry logs and crops. Now more than twenty elephants in the Omkoi region are used to carry books. The elephant teams spend two to three days in each village. Each trip covers seven or eight villages, so it takes each elephant team eighteen to twenty days to complete a round-trip.
The Books-by-Elephant delivery program serves thirty-seven villages, providing education for almost two thousand people in the Omkoi region. They have even designed special metal slates that won´t break when carried on the elephants´ backs across the rough terrain. These slates are used to teach Thai children to write and read. (There are also two-person teams carrying books to about sixteen villages, bringing learning materials to another six hundred people.)
In Bangkok, the capital of Thailand, old train carriages have been transformed into a library. The train is called Hong Rotfni Yoawachon, which means "Library Train for Young People." The train serves the homeless children of Bangkok. The Railway Police Division in Bangkok realized there was a need for a safe place for street children, so they refurbished the old train carriages at the railway station, where many of the kids were hanging out. The police restored the trains to their old glory, complete with wood paneling and shining copper light fixtures. They turned the railway cars into a library and a classroom. Here the children learn to read and write. The police have even transformed the area around the train into a garden, where they grow herbs and vegetables.
• ZIMBABWE
Many small communities are spread throughout rural Zimbabwe. Bulawayo is a city within the Bulawayo province in western Zimbabwe. Outside of Bulawayo, there are few paved roads. People travel either on foot or by donkey cart along the sandy trails. And donkey carts carry library books as well. Rachel, a library volunteer, worked in Bulawayo. Once a week she would load boxes of books onto a small wooden cart drawn by a donkey: the Nkayi Donkey Mobile Library Cart. The Rural Libraries and Resources Development Programme is hoping to nurture reading skills among the young people of rural Zimbabwe. The donkey cart can reach small communities that are inaccessible to vehicles because of the bad roads. Boxes of books delivered by donkey cart are left at schools in different communities for a month at a time.
"We would load boxes of books into the cart," Rachel says, "and walk for hours along the dusty roads to reach different villages. We´d leave the books in the local schools. Then the children and adults would come to the schools to check out the books. We tried to keep the library running on a regular schedule." Rachel adds, laughing, "But sometimes we couldn´t catch the donkeys, and then we´d be late!"
One of the Rural Libraries and Resources Programme´s brand·new carts is a donkey-driven electro-communications library cart! It brings not only books but also a solar-powered TV and VCR to children who have never watched TV in their lives. The library plans to add a computer and satellite dish to bring Internet and fax capabilities to this semiarid region of Zimbabwe in the near future.
The children enjoy picture books, and since this is an agricultural society, older readers want books on farming. Books in the native language are very popular, as are good books from Western cultures. But the children like African literature the best, even if it is in English.
Margriet Ruurs
My Librarian is a Camel
Pennsylvania, Boyds Mills Press, 2005
(Adapted)
A Tale from Tehran
On a quiet street in the city of Tehran lived a little girl called Shiraz. Shiraz´s mother had died when Shiraz was born, and soon afterwards, her father married again. His new wife had a daughter of her own, the same age as Shiraz. Her name was Monir, and the two girls grew up like sisters.
At first, all went well. The family lived happily together and Shiraz´s stepmother treated her kindly. Then Shiraz´s father died. Everything changed overnight. "Without your father bringing home money every week, we cannot afford a maid," said the stepmother. "We need to save money. Shiraz, from now on, I´d like you to do the housework."
Shiraz no longer had time to see her friends or play outside. Instead, she spent her days cooking and cleaning, washing and ironing. She missed her father terribly, but she knew she could not bring him back.
This story starts one autumn day when Shiraz had finished all her chores: she had cleaned the house and washed and ironed the clothes. Whenever she had a little time to herself, Shiraz liked to go and sit on the balcony at the top of the house. On her knees lay a ball of wool she had found among the few things that her mother had left her.
She settled down to knit herself a winter sweater when, all of a sudden, a gust of wind blew the ball of wool off her lap and tossed it far beyond the balcony.
Shiraz leapt up and clung to the railing. She looked all around her, straining to see where the wind had thrown her ball of wool. And at last, she saw it, caught in the branches of a rosebush in one of her neighbors´ courtyards.
"That´s my mother´s wool," Shiraz said to herself. "I must go and get it."
Shiraz shivered ¾ and not just because she was cold. She studied the path from her home to the strange garden and set off to ask for her ball of wool back.
She knocked loudly on her neighbor´s front door. She waited, but there was no answer.
She knocked again. After a long time, a small window in the top of the door opened just a slit and a pair of eyes stared down at her.
"What do you want?" asked an old lady´s voice.
"Hello, my name is Shiraz. Please excuse me," Shiraz said nervously. "My ball of wool has fallen from our balcony into your garden. Please, could I have it back?"
The eyes looked Shiraz up and down suspiciously. "I will give you your wool, but on one condition," the old lady said. "You must do a few chores for me, jobs I cannot manage on my own. Then you will get your ball of wool back."
"That would be a pleasure!" Shiraz replied. She was used to hard work and all she wanted was to have her mother´s wool.
The door creaked open, and an old lady with wild and dirty long hair appeared. She hadn´t washed her face, her dress was filthy, and her nails were long and curved. Shiraz´s heart beat fast. She wanted to run away. But she stayed where she was. "This old lady has kind eyes," Shiraz said to herself. "She looks scary, but I expect she has just forgotten how to look after herself properly."
"Are you coming in or not?" asked the old lady impatiently. Shiraz stepped slowly inside.
She could not believe how dirty and smelly the house was. The old lady showed her the way to the kitchen. Plates, cups, pots and pans, all crusty with moldy leftovers, were piled high in the sink. The old lady gave Shiraz a heavy hammer.
"I want you to smash all the dishes, and the draining board and the sink. Smash everything," she said. Then she left.
Shiraz took a look around and put the hammer down on a stool in the corner.
Then she set to work. She washed all the dishes, she scrubbed the sink, and she mopped the floor. Then she filled a pot of water, lit the fire and prepared soup with some vegetables that she had found in a basket in a cupboard.
When the kitchen was clean and tidy and everything in its right place, she went to look for the old lady. "I have finished," she said. The old lady looked around the kitchen without a word.
Then the old lady led Shiraz out into the garden. Everything was neglected. The grass was long, and weeds and brambles had sprung up among the shrubs and the flowers. The soil was cracked and dry. The old lady gave Shiraz a pair of heavy shears. "I want you to cut down all the flowers and pull out their roots. Cut down the bushes too. Destroy everything. I don´t want anything left," she said as she turned around and trudged back into the house.
Shiraz looked at the sad garden. Then she set to work. She pruned and trimmed the plants, pulled out the weeds and cut back the brambles. As she was working, she heard the faint sound of water trickling. She looked, and there between the bushes she found a rock that was damp with fresh water. "There must be a hidden spring under this rock." she thought. "If I can unblock the spring it will water the garden." The rock was heavy, but Shiraz managed to roll it back. The water found its way to the bushes, the flowers and the grass, and the thirsty plants began to look green and fresh again.
Shiraz called the old lady. "I´ve tidied the garden," she told her. The old lady looked at all the work Shiraz had done but she did not say a word.
Next, the old lady took Shiraz to her bedroom. "I have one more thing to ask before I give you back your ball of wool. Take these scissors and cut my hair. I don´t need this long hair anymore."
Shiraz looked at the old lady´s wild hair. First, she washed it. Now the old lady´s hair hung gleaming and silver down her thin back. Then Shiraz found a brush. She braided the old lady´s hair and pinned it up in a neat bun.
Now the house was calm and clean, and the old lady looked much happier. "Here is your wool," she told Shiraz. "Thank you for all you have done. On your way home, go through the back gate. You will find two pools ¾ one has clear water, the other dark. Go into the clear pool first. Dive underwater three times. Then bathe in the dark pool. Dive three times and no more. Then you can go back home."
Shiraz thanked the old lady, took the ball of wool from her and went out through the back gate. Just as the old lady had said, she found two round pools. Shiraz plunged three times into the first pool and three times into the second pool. Then she went home.
As she knocked on her own front door, Shiraz remembered that she had gone out without telling anyone and that she had not made the dinner yet. "Oh no," she thought, "I´ll be in such trouble." She started to tremble as she stood waiting for her stepmother to open the door. She knew she would be severely punished.
But it was Shiraz´s stepsister, Monir, who came to the door. She smiled and asked Shiraz very politely, "How can I help you?"
"I´m sorry I´m so late..." Shiraz began.
"I beg your pardon, who are you?" asked Monir.
Shiraz was puzzled. "It´s me, Shiraz. I´m so sorry I´ve been gone so long," she said.
Monir laughed. "How can you be Shiraz?" she said. "You don´t look at all like her ¾ you´re far too beautiful!"
"Please," begged Shiraz. "Don´t make fun of me. Just let me in. Your mother will be angry."
Monir turned and shouted for her mother.
Shiraz´s stepmother came to the door. "What can I do for you?" she asked politely.
"Please don´t tease me anymore," Shiraz pleaded. "´I´ll explain everything... please, let me in."
At last, Monir and her mother realized that the beautiful young woman really was Shiraz. They were full of questions. "Where have you been? How have you turned into such a beauty?" Shiraz told them everything.
The next day, Shiraz´s stepmother came back with two bags full of wool. Shiraz showed her the old lady´s garden. Her stepmother began to throw the balls of wool wildly in all directions. One ball flew through an open window and into a bowl of porridge, another fell into a game of soccer and was kicked high into a tree. Another knocked a passerby on the head.
At last, one ball rolled into the old lady´s garden. "There it is!" she said excitedly to Monir.
"Off you go!" Shiraz´s stepmother hissed at her daughter. "Do exactly what you´re told. And don´t be lazy or rude. Remember to dive into the pools on your way home. I have a feeling that´s where the magic is." She hid behind a tree while Monir knocked at the door.
"Come on! Open the door, you old bag!" muttered Monir. She knocked again.
After a long time, a small window opened, and a pair of eyes stared out at her.
"What do you want?" asked an old lady´s voice.
"My ball of wool has fallen into your garden, and I want it back," said Monir.
"First, you must do a few things for me. Then I will give it to you," said the voice.
"Fine, fine," agreed Monir impatiently.
The door opened and once more an old lady with wild and dirty long hair appeared. Monir pushed past her. "What do you want me to do?" she demanded. The old lady showed her into the dirty kitchen and gave her a heavy hammer.
"I want you to break all the dishes and the draining board and the sink. Break everything," the old lady said.
Monir didn´t waste a second. She grabbed the hammer and smashed all the plates and cups and all the pots and pans. When she had finished she went to find the old lady. "I´ve done that job," she said.
The old lady looked at the kitchen without saying a word.
The old lady led Monir out into the garden. The bushes had grown wild again, the flowers had wilted, and the shrubs were full of brambles. "I want you to cut down all the flowers and pull them out," the old lady said and gave Monir a pair of heavy shears. "I don´t want anything left to bloom," she added as she walked away.
Monir cut down everything. She hacked the flowers, the shrubs and the two trees. Not a single plant was left standing. When the garden was completely destroyed, she went to find the old lady. "There, that´s done too," Monir said. The old lady looked at the garden but didn´t say a word.
The old lady took Monir to her bedroom. "There is one more thing I need to ask you before I give you back your ball of wool. Take these scissors and cut my hair."
Monir cut the old lady´s hair quickly and carelessly. When she had finished, she asked impatiently, "Now, what about the pools?" The lady looked at her reflection in the mirror and saw how short her hair was, and how badly cut.
"Yes, indeed, now you should go and find the pools. Go through the back gate. You will find two round pools. One has clear water and one has dark. Swim in the dark pool first and dive under its waters three times. Then swim in the clear pool and do the same. Three times, no more," the old lady reminded Monir. "Then you can go back home."
Monir ran to the back gate. She forgot all about the ball of wool that the old lady had given back to her. She found the two round pools and jumped into the dark pool three times. Then she jumped into the pool with the clear water. She dived under the water not three, but ten times.
"´I´ll stay in the water longer than Shiraz," she muttered. "That will make me much more beautiful than her!"
The sun was starting to set and Monir was still in the water. Her skin was all wrinkled and she began to shiver from the cold. At last, she pulled herself out and ran home.
Monir knocked at her door. She thought about how beautiful she must look. How pleased her mother would be!
But when her mother came to the door, she snarled, "We don´t answer the door for beggars," and she slammed the door in Monir´s face.
Monir tried again.
"Stop bothering me, you disgusting creature!" her mother shouted this time.
"Mother, it´s me," At last, Monir´s mother realized that this really was Monir standing at the door, even though she looked hideous. Her hair hung limply around her ears, her eyes were mean and small, and her skin was gray and rough. "Tell me, you ungrateful wretch!" she screamed at Shiraz. "You came back from the old lady´s house looking more beautiful than before ¾ how is it that Monir looks so different and so hideous?"
"I... I don´t know..." Shiraz was staring at her sister, shocked by what she saw.
"Is there something you didn´t tell us about your visit to the old lady?" shouted the mother.
"I told you everything," Shiraz answered.
"And you Monir, did you do exactly as you were told?"
"Yes, mother, I did exactly what she asked. She told me to destroy the kitchen, and I destroyed it. She told me to destroy the garden, and I destroyed it. She asked me to cut her hair, and I cut it."
The house fell silent.
"I am sorry," whispered Shiraz.
"Sorry about what?" snapped the stepmother.
"I am sorry about Monir."
"So what did you do differently?" the stepmother and Monir shouted at the same time.
Shiraz remembered her afternoon with the old lady. She remembered how she had cleaned the kitchen and done the dishes, how she had made some soup. She remembered watering the garden, and then braiding the old lady´s silver hair.
At last Shiraz replied, "The old lady asked me to destroy everything too, but I didn´t. I listened to her heart and I did what I thought she wanted me to do."
Many years passed. Shiraz and Monir grew up. People found the hidden garden with its tangled bushes and overgrown trees. They found the two pools and tried swimming in them. And it was then that they discovered the old lady´s secret magic.
Both the dark pool and the clear pool have the same water. They don´t change the people who dip into them. They just make them look the way they feel on the inside.
And everyone remembered Shiraz, too ¾ the girl with a brave heart, who had listened and had understood that when people are sad, they do not always know how to ask for what they need.
The girl with a brave heart: A Tale from Tehran
Cambridge, Barefoot Books, 2010
Posted by: Stories for Everyone - AS <sg@storiesforeveryone.com>
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