GIFTS

A year ago, I wrote a story when I could not find an appropriate one to read to local students about our Independence celebration.

The main character of my story is Ama. She lived in a Ghanaian village. Ama had a welcome opportunity to travel to the city to live with a family. A diligent student, Ama was selected to be one of the students to take part in the Independence day celebrations, at the main square. This was a very prestigious opportunity as only a select amount of students was invited.

I researched and discovered an Illustrator. I found A on Instagram, she was very willing to work with me. She brought my story alive, by showing the different images and helped me develop my main character and setting. It was not very easy to accomplish because A does not speak English and I also do not speak Portuguese. I still wrote what I needed in English and she found a way to translate my English words and work with me.

There were and still are struggles with the features and the environment, as my illustrator has never travelled to Africa, we used pictures and photographs to try and get the features and the location right.

There are so many positives these days using the internet to communicate .

My story is still evolving and in another slice, I will write about the revision I continue to make.