Friday, February 11, 2011

What is in Marie Claire's bookbag? A squeegie.

What is in Marie Claire's bookbag? I recently received a list of items that we bought for the 14 year-old Right2School student, to begin her year at secondary school:

2 school uniforms
1 sweater
1 pair of sports shoes
1 igitenge (cloth to wear while cleaning)
1 mosquito net
1 mattress
1 pillow
2 sets of bed sheets
20 200-page notebooks
10 pens
1 math set
1 calculator
1 set of passport photos
1 lucrette (like a squeegie to clean floors)
1 plate
1 cup
1 set of utensils

As I read through the list I thought about how different the items are than the ones my mom and dad used to buy me for school. Typically that list contained things like: a couple new sets of clothes, a pair of shoes, tablets of paper, folders, a lunch box, lead pencils, pencil bag, erasers, and so on. They were tools that they would purchase for me year after year because I would lose them or break them or mistreat them. I had the luxury of returning to Wal-mart each year because we had the money to do so. I learned to take school supplies for granted and not value them.

Then consider Marie Claire, who will not take any item on this list for granted. She might never have had the opportunity to own some of these supplies before. I can guarantee that at the end of the school year, some of these items will be in mint condition because she treasured and valued them.

It brings joy to my heart to know that students like Marie Claire will be improving the lives of her future children by going to school, and one day will be buying school supplies for them.

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