What a day

As I have read through What is the What today, I have seen some triumph and some tragedy. As Valentino (referred to as Achak, his Dinka name) crosses the Nile, he reaches a village setup on the other banks. The women there feed and attend to all of the thousands of boys and other people who have joined them in their journey. The village is a safehaven for the time being and a place where everyone can relax on their journeys to Ethiopia. Everyone fills their bellies and over time, they leave to continue the pilgrimage. While Achak is in the village, he runs into his friend William K who he not seen since Marial Bai. They are thrilled to once again see each other. Achak describes it as feeling like he was actually born before all of this horror began. He realizes his life did not just begin with the journey they have been making to Ethiopia. William K is concrete evidence that he once had a family, home and life. Achak feels comfortable and as if, for the first time, is going to make it to Ethiopia.
William K is a compulsive and pathological liar, but it does not stop Achak's affection for him as a friend. Somehow, the lying brings comfort to Achak because William K has fabricated wonderful stories of hearing how both of their families are alive and are in Ethiopia waiting; Achak knows this is not true because of what he has seen, but listens to the magnificent tales.
Whilst in the village, Dut informs them of how the civil war began basically with England giving up Sudan to itself. England and Egypt split the country in the 19th Century, but in WWII, England had to give it up to take care of their own selves. So, with England's hand gone, Southern Sudan had to govern itself which did not work too well with the Northern Arabs.
During the night, the village has to flee. The rebels are coming and are about to cross the Nile. The thousands have to run on. As the night progresses, day breaks and the kids are in the desert. To make a long story shore, boys succumb to death from the heat, thirst and famine. Even William K starts to go a little crazy (even though he comes out of it). As the trek goes on, the boys find trees full of birds and start to dine...I will go into no details...I almost had to skip this part.
One night in the desert, a false alarm sends all boys fleeing. Achak runs in the woods and gets hit by barbed wire. This takes him down and he passes out. He wakes to hear a man calling out in the bushes. The man does not show himself but forces Achak to talk. He eventually comes out of the bushes and takes Achuk to his hut. There, he has cold water, food and a bicycle. Achak is in heaven. The guy tells him he must not speak of the hut or the man. The man says he is alive because he does not exist (very philosophical, actually...but Achak doesn't understand what he means). Eventually, Achak asks him about the what. The man had never heard the story so Achak tells him his father's tale. Afterward, the man seems to try to lead Achak to the what. I believe the what is actually not knowing destiny, but Achak does not figure it out. It turns out the man has a bicycle and let's him ride even though he has never ridden before. Achak is scared but is excited, too. He learns to ride a bike that day and it actually releases him in a way.
After he rides the bike, the man sends him off so he does not get too far behind from the boys. Achak eventually finds William K but never says anything about his day. Achak is beginning to believe the whole thing was dream.

So, that was my reading today. I read on the eliptical. It was funny because the guy from the divorce party ended up being right next to me again!!! He told me I better get all of my stuff together and prepare myself to read, listen to music, talk on the phone, exercise AND not hold the bars.

I am still inspired by the courage and strength of the boys in What is the What. I know I was bitchy because I had to wake up at 5:10 this morning to work shipment for Gap until 10:45AM. We folded 3,600 garments of clothing. Man, I complained about folding when I was young for my mom and dad. I would gladly fold one load of undergarments now vs. the thousands of garments we folded today. I feel like I should run around naked because I am so sick of clothing. I don't even fold my own damned clothing.

Well, a brief evening update of Barnes. Great night although I have been up since 5:10 this morning and worked for 14.5 hours today. I met a woman tonight, her name is Mary Jo Cally...she told me I could use her name. She was fascinating. She and I first started talking about Rebecca Stead's When You Reach Me (is it a sign everyone should read this book since I have mentioned it about 100 times in my blogs?). Come to find out, MaryJo was really close with Madeleine L'Engle, author of A Wrinkle in Time. She was the one who convinced Mrs. L'Engle to record for the Random House audio version of her book; Cally was the producer (it even says so on the boxed recording we have at work!). She said L'Engle was such a fascinating woman which I do not deny in any form. I can tell just by reading her wonderful books. Ms. Cally told me about all of the versions of the book that exist because of the different errors that have been corrected over the decades from grammar to word choice to editor's desires, etc. Some of these changes L'Engle knew about, others she did not. There is even a Greek quote in the book that is not correct that Ms. Cally is trying to have corrected for the next printing. Ms. Cally said she would like to talk to people in a seminar or lecture or conference about L'Engle's life; she would show pictures and talk about some of the incredible things she did. I talked to our CRM tonight and she said we need to have Cally at our Educator Night in April. I am going to e-mail her tomorrow about it!
Then, to wrap this up quickly (I go to work at 8 tomorrow morning), we talked about opera. Come to find out, Ms. Cally is part of the Chicago Symphony Chorus and was a part of it when Sir Georg Solti conducted. How FANTASTIC! I love him. He is amazing. She said, how appropriately relating to my blogs, that he had them all memorize Berlioz's Damnation of Faust; she is going to the performance on Wednesday! I was so excited. She then told me she was friends with Anne Sophie von Otter, a Swedish Mezzo Soprano (the best in the world!). Wow what an incredible woman Ms. Cally is! I want to sit with her and chat some more when I am not working! I think it will be wonderful.
I hope I did not shortchange anyone on the blog tonight! Good reading today, good day today, good working today, good people today. The what is what we make of life.
Good night! :)