Photo Journal

14 Mar, 2008

Selina's bravery

I had been aware of a deep scar on her face since I saw her in the corridor at school. When she had got an assignment of making an illustrated book about him/her from Ms. Meeker, her teacher, Selina had chosen the incident where she had been injured on her face as a theme.

You can see her face with full of smile on the first page of her book. This book let you know why she has got the scar on her face as turning over. She describes how to cope with a dog through experience that she was bitten by a dog at three, that you have to be careful when you touch a dog, that a puppy becomes so mean if you throw a stone at it, and that you have to be careful particularly for a dog's rabies from a fox. They were written in her own Inuit words, with illustrations drawn carefully with colored pencils. Ms. Meeker let each child announce his/her illustrated book in front of kids at preschool. This makes them sure of what they want to tell and deepen it all the more.

When I was having a stroll in the early evening, I saw a girl alone coming toward me from before. It was Serine herself. "Do you want to see my dog?" Though surprised at what she said, I followed her. There was a dark brown puppy there looking quite like the puppy drawn in her illustrated book. "Aren't you scared with dogs?" "Of course, I'd been scared for a long time, but I'm all right now."She undid the leash from the puppy, and put a lead for a walk on it.

She is in the fifth year at school and lives with her father, elder brother and sister. She did not remember her mother's face any longer. She said, "I wanna come see my mom with my pockets full of coins." when I asked her dream in the future. Her life had just started. I was so much impressed with the little girl's strength. Walking Rickey (It might be so.), chatting with each other, we went all the way around Grise Fiord village.

Though it is wonderful and so much fun to see a lot of things and to go to a lot of places, I began to want to have the same strength for living as Selina first of all. I thought she was so cool that she knew her real wish and something to tell.

When we were back from a walk, smell of delicious dinner had been spreading over from each house.

Noriko Miyashita