Picture Dictionary & Books : Free for English Learner!

As you can imagine, I bled. I bled.

After bleeding for a while, I fainted thereafter.

It's something that so many girls -- I'm lucky, I never died -- but many die.

It's practiced, it's no anesthesia, it's a rusty old knife, and it was difficult.

I was lucky because one, also, my mom did something that most women don't do.

Three days later, after everybody has left the home, my mom went and brought a nurse.

We were taken care of. Three weeks later, I was healed, and I was back in high school.

I was so determined to be a teacher now so that I could make a difference in my family.

Well, while I was in high school, something happened.

I met a young gentleman from our village who had been to the University of Oregon.

This man was wearing a white t-shirt, jeans, camera, white sneakers -- and I'm talking about white sneakers.

There is something about clothes, I think, and shoes.

They were sneakers, and this is in a village that doesn't even have paved roads. It was quite attractive.

I told him, "Well, I want to go to where you are," because this man looked very happy, and I admired that.

And he told me, "Well, what do you mean, you want to go? Don't you have a husband waiting for you?"

And I told him, "Don't worry about that part. Just tell me how to get there."

This gentleman, he helped me.

While I was in high school also, my dad was sick.

He got a stroke, and he was really, really sick, so he really couldn't tell me what to do next.

But the problem is, my father is not the only father I have.

Everybody who is my dad's age, male in the community, is my father by default -- my uncles, all of them -- and they dictate what my future is.

So the news came, I applied to school and I was accepted to Randolph-Macon Woman's College in Lynchburg, Virginia, and I couldn't come without the support of the village, because I needed to raise money to buy the air ticket.

I got a scholarship but I needed to get myself here.

But I needed the support of the village, and here again, when the men heard, and the people heard that a woman had gotten an opportunity to go to school, they said, "What a lost opportunity. This should have been given to a boy. We can't do this."

So I went back and I had to go back to the tradition.

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