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a tale about an african boy who finds a shimmering golden coin dad where should i put this baby tree arh just over there jabulani jabulani was a 6 year old boy and lived in the cold village of sambodia the south end of kenya in a badly crafted bamboo hut jabulani s bedroom only has a flax mat to sleep on every day jabulani would eat a bowl of warm steaming rice and have a sip of cool refreshing water from the childhelp well nothing else jabulani s mother died when he was a small boy life has been tough living without her jabulani s best talent was planting trees for the nature he made a promise that one day he would build his hut right in the middle of the forest with all the wildlife.

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one day jabulani was on his way to the planting grounds when he stumbled upon a round shiny object the glimmer caught his eye he dropped to the ground to examine the strange fascinating item jabulani dropped the shiny thing into his pocket and carried on with his chores when he got home he asked his dad what the object was his father knew at once what it was it was a rare gold shilling from the ancient mogaboga tribe this coin was equivalent to their whole year s worth of earning his father was greedy and told his son to give him the coin at once jabulani refused which was just as well because this was not an ordinary coin that night jabulani placed his precious finding under his pillow and prayed that he and the village could have a better life all of a sudden the coin started to vibrate and then jabulani woke up was he dreaming or was this true it couldn t be could

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it jabulani was surrounded by his village but it was different it was much much better it had well crafted apartments and sparkling water ways he blinked a couple of times then rubbed his eyes with his dry cracked hands no matter how hard he tried the fantasy never disappeared he was ecstatic but was also utterly disappointed his old crumbly little hut he had made with his dad was replaced with a spotless penthouse and his beautiful forest had been cut down only a fraction of it surrounded a field of luscious green grassland he had a suffocating knot growing tighter in his stomach each minute for two reasons one was that all his hard work had gone down the drain and he was also confused he thought this could easily be someone else s fantasy but it definitely wasn t his he could have easily taken the clear waterways always filled to the top and the

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countless amounts of money to buy more food jabulani walked into the large polished empty apartment he began to choke where was his dad jabulani searched the village which seemed a lot bigger high and low with no luck suddenly out of the corner of his eye he spotted a new building with a strange word printed on it it spelt s-c-h-o-o-l and then he caught sight of his dad his father was talking to a man with an unfamiliar face by then his dad had also spotted jabulani and was making his way over to him this is your new principal mr yackavitch he has come all the way from canada to be here he is replacing mr winshal his father spoke in a deep voice butterflies were batting against the walls of his stomach this time because he had the feeling that this was no fantasy it was real!

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beep beep beep beep a strange noise was sounding in his ear he then heard the door creak open come on jabulani you re going to be late for school he had a flash back to the letter on the building school he muttered under his breath his father dressed him in clean tight fitting clothes and drove him to the building he had seen the previous day his teacher mrs westanera was a very sweet loving lady who had been teaching for the last seven years and obviously knew young children well it was half way through the day when jabulani got so bored he actually dosed off to sleep he felt a nudge then another and another and then he heard words jabulani listened to the sweet words of mrs westerna,

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gradually getting louder then turning into the strong voice of his father hurry up and get dressed it s time to go and plant the trees jabulani did as he was told but was also ecstatic as it was just a dream he was dressed in no time ready for another day of planting on the way to the planting grounds the sun caught the edge of a golden object and made it glisten with all its might this time jabulani grabbed the shiny familiar coin marched over to his father and said here you are father just as you wanted a with and with that he carried planting trees by courtney martin

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