Writing for Bia: Five Months with a Host Sister

Writing for Bia

1Last January, a high school student named Beatriz Oliveira came from Brazil to live with my family for five months. Everyone calls her Bia. My name is Kemi Okafor, and I am in fourth grade. Bia speaks Portuguese, and she was still learning English, so I decided to help her with my writing. Here is what I wrote while she lived with us.

2The night before Bia arrived, I made a welcome sign for our front door. Mom helped me look up the Portuguese words, and I wrote "Bem-vinda, Bia! Welcome, Bia!" in big green letters. It took about ten minutes.

3On her first morning, I stuck labels on things in our kitchen, such as "fridge," "bowls," and "spoons." Each label had just one word, so Bia could learn the English names fast. I made thirty labels in one afternoon.

4My biggest job was a house guide called "How Our House Works." I worked on it for a whole week. My first draft said, "Jiggle the thingy on the back door." Dad read it and said, "Bia won't know what a thingy is." I changed it to "Turn the key to the left, then pull the door." I also split my long sentences into short ones, because short sentences are easier for someone who is learning a new language. Bia used the guide every day during her first month.

5Every Sunday night, I sent an email to Grandpa Emeka, who lives in Texas. I told him one funny thing that happened that week, like the time Bia beat my little brother, Tobi, at checkers five times in a row. Those emails took about fifteen minutes, and I only read them over once.

6The longest piece took all five months. It was a memory book for Bia. At the end of each month, I wrote one page about our best moments, like the night she taught us to make pão de queijo, a cheesy bread from Brazil. In the last week, I read every page again, fixed my spelling, and glued in photos. I gave it to Bia at her goodbye dinner.

7Bia hugged me and said, "I will read this on the plane home." Then she handed me a card of her own. It was written in English, and she had not made a single mistake.