Big

It finally stopped raining on Saturday. I was able to go for my morning jog on Sunday and this morning. I still haven’t seen the moon yet, though, because the clouds come and go, and at night they come. I miss the moon and the stars, but on Saturday I witnessed a very beautiful sunset that made me very, very happy.

“Kate, you need to stop reducing,” Sister Regina has been telling me lately. (“Reducing” is her way of saying “losing weight.”) “You used to look very nice, but now you are too slim. It doesn’t suit you.”

When she first said this, I was like, YES! All those morning jogs have been working! I’m becoming chingilingi!

The nuns are very concerned about my weight. They don’t want me to go home too thin, otherwise, they say, everyone in America will think they didn’t take care of me very well by not feeding me enough. Ha!

I was feeling pretty good about myself until today at school, when my students told me how big I’ve become.

“Miss Kate, why are you so big?” Nathaniel asked.

“What do you mean?” I said.

“You’ve gotten really big,” he said, and Maame, who was standing by, nodded most emphatically.

“You mean I’m fat?” I asked. They both nodded. “Where?”

Nat pointed to my hips, and Maame grabbed her own arm and jiggled it to demonstrate which part of my arms are obolo.

“Okay. Thanks, guys,” I said. What else could I say? Kids can be painfully honest sometimes, but I’m glad they are. I guess I still have a long way to go to become chingilingi! I think that I’m thinner than I was a month ago, but still bigger than when I arrived, which just won’t do. I still need to lose like 79.3 pounds to look like I did when I first came here 9 months ago.

I hope it won’t rain anymore so I can continue jogging. I only have two weeks to reduce. Can you believe it? I’m leaving in two weeks!