What is going on? South Carolina?

What is the What is gettin good. Valentino has finally been treated in the hospital. It is 1:21AM and they are finally getting him an MRI after 9 hours of waiting (sounds like the ER to me...but no ER is complete without Britney Marroni and gout, diabetes, nausea, flu, strep throat, pain in legs, broken femur, runny nose, sinus infection, constipation, cateracts and whatever else...oh yeah, the Little Mermaid Big Note Songbook). Valentino is excited because finally he will learn the reasons for his migraines and muscular aches in the back of his neck.

During my reading from today, there have been so many stories from Valentino. There are so many that I can only brush upon a few. The first most interesting was his running into an Anuyak woman. The Anuyak are the river people that had a mini civil war/battle with the Dinka in Ethiopia. The woman was so sad to see such a skinny boy and wanted to make him feel better so she started feeding him. She told him she would be his mother and he would never have to go back to the camp again. Valentino said it was the first time he had been touched in months and the prospect of a family was comforting; the only bad thing was that he did not want to forget the purpose of his journey to Ethiopia: to find his family. He told the woman he could not stay with her forever, but he continued to eat with her for weeks and bring provisions she needed that she could not obtain. I know one thing...there is nothing like being able to see your family. I have not seen mine together since June 2009 until yesterday. It is so nice to see them in person...and the dogs.

Another story: MOSES is alive. Valentino thought he was a hallucination and it really was him. Moses was his best friend in Marial Bai and he thought he had died by horseman. It ends up Moses was captured by the Arabs and enslaved and sold three times. The first was to a rich family who treated him like an animal. The man of the house encouraged his children to beat Moses and feed him garbage. Moses was placed in a school for Muslim children; he did not try to defy this because he thought learning to read the Koran and learning Muslim traditions would cause the family to like him more. No...it did not. The whipping continued relentlessly. Moses decided to run away one day and was caught by the neighbors (their dog barked). The children sat on his back and called him a donkey and stuffed garbage in his mouth. Moses was sick...he did not have to work for three days because of all of the vomiting. He got the idea to pretend he was sick all the time until eventually, he was sold. This time, Muslim Sudanese (who looked just like Moses) bought him. He was sold to white people from them who freed him. Thus, Valentino learned about white people for the first time.

In camp, white (European and American) began showing up for aid. The camp began transforming. Many people thought the whites were gods because of their angelic white skin. He was told by his Christening priest that they were directly descended because of all of the pictures of Jesus were white. Valentino began calling whites Inside-Out people. He thought it was funny how the heat turned them pink and made them sweat a lot. When the whites came, schools were built, people began eating, the Dinkas learned of the United Nations. Things got better. But, the camp became militant, as well. During the day, the people would do their thing, a little stricter though, and at night, the SPLA would train (unbeknownst to the UN). Moses, of many, went to train.

In school, a group of girls were put into Valentino's class (this is a new story btw). They were only 4 girls out of a class of 51 boys...they were called the Royal Girls. They were a group of sisters that were nieces of the teacher, Mr. Kondit; their names were Agar, Akon, Agum and Yar Akech. The boys were nuts over them, so much so that the teacher put the girls in the back of the class so the boys could concentrate. Valentino began doing really well in school because he wanted to impress them. He called roll...he did everything. The boys began making fun of him but he did not care. One day, at the end of the year, the girls invited him over to their home for lunch. At first, he said no but then realized he didn't mean it so he consented. When he got there, to make a long story short, they ALL began exploring each others' bodies. This was new for Achak, but he didn't care. This story came about because of two things 1) his girlfriend Tabitha and 2) his Christening Priest.
1) Tabitha and Valentino eventually began dating in the United States. They were separated by the distance of Atlanta to Seattle but it did not bother them. Tabitha broke it off with her abusive boyfriend and came to Atlanta to visit Valentino. Everything went well until she started getting jealous. She learned that Valentino, the saint, was good with women and automatically assumed Valentino would be, too. So, she started asking about girls and how good he was with them and did all of the typical passive aggressive jealous stuff. He said in fact, he was good with the girls and got into the story of the Royal Girls which he found out to be Tabitha's cousins!

2) His Christening Priest told him the story of Saint Valentino from Rome. He tried to convert prisoners and they did. When people began to find out about his doings, he was imprisoned himself. He healed a girl of her blindness and his head was cut off (this was the short story).

So, I have made great strides in the reading.

My flight to SC was amazing. It was the smoothest I have ever had. I sat in seat 1A which was in a row of onesies which meant there was no 1B...actually, the only thing next to me was the flight attendant's station. It was amazing. I was the only person in the front of the plane. No one to bother me. I slept, read and listened to music. It was so good to see my parents and the dogs! I will begin posting pics tonight!!!

Have a wonderful day!

:)