Written and Illustrated by Marina M. Shonoda
Short Story for Children Written and Illustrated by Marina M. Shonoda RHET314001 - Writing Children Literature Submitted to Dr Richard Hoath Spring 2021 The American University in Cairo
Jameela, a year 2 student had learnt about this very beautiful place in her school from her class teacher, that place is called Nubia. Ms Sara showed the class pictures of colourful houses and smiling girls, boys, women and men, all with dark skin and white and bright smiles. Jameela had very fair skin, straight brown hair that she tied up in a pony tail and bright red lips that always brought out her smile too. She realized that the girls in the pictures had curly black hair and she wondered about that. She wanted to meet someone with different hair. Her favourite colour was green and she had a favourite green hoodie that she wore a lot. Ms Sara explained that this place is in Aswan in Egypt, and that in order to go visit from Cairo, where there school were and where Jameela lived, they had to take the train, or get on an aeroplane. Jameela got really excited to visit that place and when her mummy came to pick her up that day, Jameela kept telling her on the way home about what she learnt about Nubia and asked her a lot if they could go and visit that place and talk to these smiling people. Jameela’s mum promised that they would visit Nubia during the summer holiday! But that was in a month’s time, which is 30 days. Jameela was really excited and kept dreaming about Nubia every day before she sleeps, and sketching her memories from the pictures Ms Sara showed them, until, one day, the travelling day finally came to visit Nubia! “Mama, please don’t forget to pack my green hoodie!” said Jameela to her mummy in a very happy voice while she was packing her other toys.
“Sure Jameela, I will not forget about that!”
Jameela and her mum finally arrived by train, got some rest then got dressed the next day and joined the rest of the trip to visit the beautiful houses and nature in Nubia, and Jameela was so excited to meet Ashri, a Nubian young girlalmost around her same too, and she was showing Jameela and her mum around Gharb Soheil, the colourful Nubian village. Mum sat down to have a coffee while Ashri and Jameela started playing around Ashri’s colourful house, while they had a talk and became friends! “My name is Ashri, what yours?” “Wow, I never heard that name before. My name is Jameela. I wanted to ask you about your braids. How did you get them?” said Jameela. “My mum does them for me, it is one of the Nubian traditions, to braid hair like that, Come on Jameela I want to show you my beautiful colourful house!” Ashri friendlily grabs Jameela from her hand and does some huppety puppety jump jumps and Jameela bouncing from leg to the other on the stairs of the house. “Look at the blue, yellow and green on our walls! We all paint our house together, mama, baba and I, and we change it every once a while!” said Ashri, “as we sometimes have visitors like you over for a stay and we always want them to see our house in new colours!” “Wow...that looks so fun to live in and to paint! I wish I could paint my room’s walls but Mama doesn’t like it when I draw on the wall and tells me to only draw on paper. My house is in a tall tall building, and we can see lots and lots of people and cars from our balcony” said Jameela.
Ashri showing Jameela around her colourful house in Gharb Soheil, Nubia
“Wow” said Ashri, “that sounds like a house in another country! Our houses are mostly 1 or 2 floors only. Now come on Jameela I want to show you a special game that we play along the Nile, this big flowy flow of water” And off they run to the Nile bank, and Ashri grabs some wet soil and teaches Jameela to do so as well, and they start making doll shapes from the soil, just like Ashri’s mum told her that this is how kids played in Old Nubia. “Wow, I love this game Ashri!” said Jameela,. “where I live, there is also a big flowy flow of water and there are big boats with music that move in it” “Wow, that seems like a different country, here we only have small boats and they’re called ”Faloukas”” said Ashri. “Now come with me let’s get on the falouka with our mums and get lunch” Ashri and Jameela got on the falouka and Jameela introduced her new friend Ashri to her mum. While they sat and ate, Jameela told her mum about all the beautiful things Ashri had been showing her. “Mama, Ashri showed me her colouful house and also a neighbor’s house! And they colour their house! Please let me colour my room Mama!”
Ashri showing Jameela around her neighbour’s house in Gharb Soheil, Nubia
“Yes Jameela Ashri’s house is really beautiful, Ashri, Jameela learnt about Nubia in school and she loved it! And that’s why we came to visit, Nubia is part of our same country Egypt, because Egypt is a very big big country and has a lot of different yet beautiful cultures” “Oh wow mum!” said Jameela, “this big flow flow of water we are in looks a lot like the one we have” “In fact, Jameela, this is a very long flowy flow of water and it stretches all the way from Nubia to Cairo, where we live, it’s the same one! And it’s called the River Nile” replied mum to Jameela. “Wow, Mama!” said Jameela. “Nubia is not a different country at all Ashri! We are from the same country and we are both Egyptian, but Egypt has so many different types of beauty” “However, how come Ashri has those beautiful braids mum? I want like them!” “Ashri’s hair naturally allows for this kind of brading but your beautiful brown hair has unique nature of its own too Jameela” said mum to Jameela. “You are right Mama, I think we are all beautiful in own way, Ashri, what does your name mean by the way? Now this still sounds like another country...”
“My name ‘Ashri’ means beautiful in the Nubian language, just like the meaning of your name Jameela! And it’s a common girl name here in Nubia” said Ashri. “Wow! We have so much in common! We are not only from the same country but we have the same name too! We are both beautiful indeed” said Jameela.
Then Ashri and Jameela took a photo together with Jameela’s mum’s phone camera where they both smiled a big big smile and kept for a beautiful memory of their friendship. Also they shared their social media accounts. Back at home, Jameela printed the photo and stuck it in her sketchbook next to her old sketches of Nubia that she used to sketch every night. Also, Jameela’s mum allowed her to paint a small part of her room walls, and send it to Ashri! The next morning, Jameela showed the sketchbook to Ms Sara her class teacher, and Ms Sara let her make a presentation to the whole class telling her story of going to Nubia and meeting Ashri, after which everyone wanted to visit too and make new Nubian friends….