Dear Oprah,
     So I have to admit that I'm a little discouraged for two reasons: 1)Vallary is not a resident of South Africa, which the admissions page of your school's website says an applicant must be... and 2)I think it might be wise to spend the next 10 days reposting the blog in order to try to get your attention rather than spend the bulk of my time writing.
     Thoughts on 1): I'm hoping that you might override the need for Vallary to currently reside in South Africa.  I mean, you are Oprah. You might see fit to override such a "rule", mightn you? Wouldn't it be amazing to spread out beyond the borders of South Africa and extend your reach all the way to Kenya? It seems to me that it could be the seed that grows a fruitful tree for the people of M'Bita to have a gardener like Vallary come back home after her schooling in South Africa and be able to spread such educational knowledge to her homeland. I think this could be the foundation of an everlasting bridge between the two countries.
     Thoughts on 2): I am feeling anxious about reaching you. I would hate to waste time "filling" the blog for the next 10 days when I could be using that time to spread the word about what is already written.
     So that's what I'm going to do.
     Hope to hear from you soon. Be thinking about that South Africa rule.  With all due respect, it would be your loss...and Vallary's....and I've got a feeling maybe a lot of other people of the region too. Please consider...and please get in touch. :)

Dear Oprah,
     That was the BEST Super Bowl half time show EVER!!!! Madonna could have chosen any idea to sell in lights at the end and her choice was: "world peace"...soooooooooooooooooooo inspiring!! Loved, loved, loved her performance...just like she loves, loves, loves Africa.  I think it's cool that she adopted a child from a continent that has so many children to rescue.  I do.  I admire it and have actually spent a little bit of time contemplating the possibilities of doing so. I have decided that, for those who do, it is an amazing feat. I also believe that an even more bodacious move is to try to rescue not just one...but many....simultaneously....thru education. So cool of you, Oprah.  Truly.  Or in Madonna's case, attempting to capture the attention of millions of tonight's viewers in order to possibly ignite the compassion of just some of them, in order to go on to save a few.  Either way is compelling and worth great praise. So, tonight I just wanted to say, rock on with your bad self, Oprah.  And cheers to Madge ;) You both make the women and men of not just America, but also of THE WHOLE WORLD proud to be here...and ultimately more aware of the freedom we all respect, love, and admire - whether we have it to the same degree as our nation neighbors or not - it is still what we all really want to attain and the only way we're ever going to get there is if we continue the trend that ladies like you have started: caring for aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaallllllllllllllllllllllllllllllll the children whether they are "ours" or not.  They all belong to us and we all belong to each other. So, whether Vallary gets into your school or not, I still salute you for the wonderful job you are doing to bring this world together :)  Rock on.

Dear Oprah,
     I just finished watching the movie "In Time" with Justin Timberlake, the setting of which is a world where time is money and so in order to eat, people must trade time off of their lives in order to fulfill their needs. While watching, I couldn't help but think about the latest letter I received from Vallary just today.  She told me, apologetically, that she has fallen in rank to the 7th place amongst her classmates of over 200 students. Her father, she said, had spent two hours talking with her and she now sees what she has to do to recover the lost ground.  She thanked me, as she always does, for supporting her with schooling tuition and promised me that the money would not be wasted when she graduates in 3 years as she plans to make great use of her education. 
     Time...such a valuable resource to us all, but maybe even more so to those who don't even have the option to waste it in ways that seem viable to the rest of us.  I mean, what could her father have been lecturing her about for 2 hours? She hasn't been watching too much tv to be kept from her studies...she hasn't been playing video games...she didn't get distracted by too many play dates or an out of control sports fetish...so, I can't help but wonder how time plays a role in her vision for regaining her rank.  Perhaps she will study more. Whatever it is, I know she will do it.  She has such determination.

     Time was something I thought about a great deal during my weeks in Africa.  I watched people, daily, like the woman in the picture above, who spent great portions of each day going to find and collect water. WATER. The stuff we pay for in plastic bottles (yes, I'm guilty but much less so than before my time in Africa.... but admittedly I even have a "favorite" brand) and conversely are given freely with ice in a glass at every restaurant meal. Waiters and waitresses even scowl sometimes when we fail to order an additional, more costly drink that will add to the tab.  And yet all over the world, people are devote large portions of every single day doing what the woman in the red dress has set out to do...find a trickle of their part of the 1% of fresh water on the planet.
     In a country where so much precious time is spent on tasks that we take totally for granted in the states, I am that much more amazed that a child like Vallary can find the hours and the motivation to focus on loftier goals of making a difference in a place that is crying out for help.
     I know your TIME is super precious too, Oprah.  I would imagine with monetary demands being a non-issue (with all due respect for having, like Vallary, worked yourself to the place where you are) it must then also be time that has become your own most valuable resource.  Time you must fill on your network air...time you must ration to agree to appear at worthy events...time you WANT to allocate to your loved ones and pets...time you must feel obligated to fill with decisions that will continue to propel the advancement of people everywhere. Dividing and conquering appears to be the only way to make it all happen.  So to must be part of the answer for Africa.  Please, put Vallary into a position where she can also be part of your team of young females who are going to go out and move forward in the world, using their time to better ALL time, from this moment into all future moments. The clock is ticking. Please answer soon.

Dear Oprah,

     This picture reminded me of the story of the orange.  What you see here is lunch time for the nursery students of CGA.  All of the students and the teachers would walk to a nearby empty house for lunch.  The school paid a local woman to make lunch for all of the nursery students and staff so we would leave the nursery building (pictured below) and walk over to the building you see this student sitting against with his lunch. A long line would form and we would wind slowly through the empty rooms until we came to the huge pot of food, the size of 2 coffee tables stacked on top of one another.  The meals had names that I can't recall and were largely unrecognizable. We (the Americans) did our best to eat anything that was placed in front of us as we didn't want to be disrespectful by throwing away uneaten portions that were so highly coveted by all. The meals seemed to repeat themselves every few days and so they became familiar by sight. When something was being served that I didn't particularly love, I would go thru the line, find a child who looked like they could use an extra portion of food and then give them my plate.  I traveled everywhere with my trusty backpack that held necessities like toilet paper and uneaten oranges I would stow away after breakfast.
     One day at lunch, eyeing the day's menu, I pulled my "share the plate" move and pulled out my trusty orange for lunch.  I carefully peeled it in its entirety and took a juicy bite. Just as I was bringing it up to my mouth for a second go, I dropped it onto the ground.  It was the same ground you see in the picture above.  For most Americans, including me, the natural response would be to immediately throw the orange away.  But as I bent down to pick it up, I felt many, many little eyes looking at me...or rather, at the orange. I had been a part of the culture just long enough to realize how ungrateful I would appear tossing the orange away. Wasteful Americans, they say. Not to mention that I was hungry! For just a split second, I thought I understood the world I was in just a little better. Hunger combined with present circumstances were leading me to make choices I would never even encounter in my "real life". And yet, how much more "real" does it really get than appreciating every morsel and being thankful for the parts of the orange that didn't touch the ground? So I ate it.  The part that I thought was safe.
     I've never looked at an orange the same way.  Guess I never will.