Dear Diary, This is Shabanu
My life is getting really complicated, really fast. I need some time to write my thoughts down. A few weeks ago I had to do something, that was pretty gross, but I got the job done. I had to birth a camel. So If you any of you are ever going to birth a camel, I would suggest going to the Toba afterwards. Hopefully it would have rained so that you can actually bath at the Toba. Birthing this camel was scary, but a once in a lifetime especially sense Dadi sold all of our camels. Now I won’t be birthing camels anymore. Taking care of camels isn’t my only job. I help Mama around the house sometimes. Life hasn’t been so perfect. If only grandfather didn’t die. That was sad, and scary. “We must hurry, Dadi and I, to find a burial place before the heat…” page 131. I just need to pray to Allah, that every thing will be okay.
This is what i thought the dress looked like that mama made.
This is what the camel looked like after I birthed its baby.
This is Auntie talking:
Oh Shabanu stop complaining! You should be happy you don’t have to help camels give birth anymore! You won’t be very happy when you are giving birth yourself… I remember when I gave birth to my son and you were there.
“A memory takes shape in my mind of fethcing boiled water to a room with moans and soft cries slipping like ghosts through the shuttered windows, of Mama lying across Auntie’s heaving stomach, a woman from the village pulling at something between Aunties’s splayed, bent legs.” Page 15
I liked birthing the camels. I felt useful, I felt like I am something in this world. I didn’t feel compared, I felt proud. Because of me another camel lived. “I grab the baby’s head, and pull” -page 15
Shabanu as your mother I must say I am proud of you but your father thinks other wise
“His eyes were half-angry and half-hurt.” pg. 18 after hearing what had happened to the camel.
-Mama
Mother, I do not understand. Why was father mad, I saved a camels life. Mama I didn’t mean to frustrate Dadi. I was just trying to be helpful. “I stop to rest.” page 15.
This is Auntie. Does it really matter if you like to birth the camels? More camels, more money. Stop complaining! But about Grandfather, that is something to be sad about. If only you were like me, “She feels superior to us because of Uncle’s salary and her two sons.” Page 8. That is referring to me of course, because I am better than you!
Check over all the directions!
https://docs.google.com/document/d/1bvdkZfgDQsOiw5VzqOHANBycl-FlVS65JeNjx_lLuo8/edit