Page 1

“I don’t like chicken!!” complains Tim as his mom places dinner on the table. He pushes it away. “I won’t eat it!”

“We're all having chicken tonight. You will eat it or go hungry,” replies Tim's dad. "I will not have you acting like this every evening!"

“I'd rather go hungry than eat this.” says Tim as he puts his head down on the table.

“Then go to your room without your supper,” his dad says while rolling his eyes toward the end of the table at Tim's grandmother, Nana. “That child is hopeless.”

“There is always hope,” comments Nana as she quietly follows Tim out of the room.

Page 2

As Tim storms away from the table and heads to his room, he passes the pantry that is stuffed with food. It has everything from three types of apple sauce, to five kinds of cereal, and even four flavors of chips. Under his breath Tim mumbles, “If we have so much food, why can’t I have want I want to eat?”

Tim doesn’t see her, but Nana and her old English sheepdog, Tennie, are standing right behind him as he peers into the pantry.

Nana decides to finish dinner and help with the dishes before she goes to have a talk with her grandson.

Page 3

Peeking around the doorway into Tim’s room, Nana sees Tim carefully putting together one of his model trains. Although he has build a nice design with is track, Tim has cars, planes, and books thrown all around his room.

Following Nana upstairs, Tennie pushes the door open with her nose, bounds over to Tim and begins licking his face with her sloppy wet tongue.

“Get away, Tennie!” shouts Tim. “Who let you in?”

“Now Tim, please don’t take out your frustrations on Tennie,” says Nana as she enters and sits on Tim’s bed.

“Nana, will you play with me?” asks Tim.

“I think I’d rather tell you a little story,” replies Nana.

“OK.” agrees Tim as he climbs up on his bed and cuddles up to Nana.

After Tennie circles around a few times she drops on the floor on top of Nana’s feet ready to hear the story.

Page 4

“In a small Malawian village there lived a young boy who was called Kapangama. Now Kapangama was not his real name. His real name was Samuel, but everyone in the village of Kapenda thought that Samuel was hopeless, so they all called him Kapangama.

His mother left him right after he was born, so his father married another woman. All the villagers knew that the new wife would not want to keep Kapangama. They knew that it was hopeless for him. He was the hopeless one – Kapangama.

His mother was gone. His father’s new wife didn’t want him. Kapangama could not even go to live with his grandparents because they were already dead. Since there was no other place for him, it was decided that he would go to live with his step-grandmother across the corn fields.

Page 5

Life for Kapangama was not easy with his step-grandmother. He was given very little food and he was forced to sleep out with the cows and sheep.

Kapangama’s step-grandmother was cruel to him. He felt that he could not live with his step-grandmother any longer. So when he was only 6 years old, Kapangama decided to run away.

Page 6

Kapangama had no other place to so, so he just lived on the streets. Slowly Kapangama traveled down the mountain to Karonga, a town by Lake Malawi. He found that living on the streets was even worse than living with his step-grandmother. Kapangama could not find food, and he had no place to sleep except on the ground. Although he thought it might be better to go back to his step-grandmother’s house, he knew he could not go back.

Kapangama’s life was so hard that he did not know why he had been born. He said to himself, “Even if there is hope inside me, the world is too big. The burden is too big. There is no reason for me to continue living in this world. It is better for me to die. I should be done with my life.”

Page 7

So when Kapangama was 9 years old he went to dip tank, a large concrete tank filled with poison. Animals were “dipped” into the tank to kill ticks and diseases that were on them that could be transmitted to other animals. Kapangama took the poisoned water from the dip tank and drank it. After walking just a few meters he fell to the ground.