The Adventures of DanceVirginia The Adventures of DanceVirginia
& The Flying Pearl
Pink
& The Flying Pearl Pink
Virginia Dance is having a great morning! She woke up feeling excited.
Today is the day that her dad arrives home from a long work trip. Virginia’s dad, Walter Dance, works as a U.S. Merchant Marine officer and has been sailing in China for the past six weeks. As a mariner, Walter’s job is to operate big, huge ships owned by the United States, that carry important materials. These ships travel all around the world. Working as a merchant marine is the perfect job for Virginia’s dad Walter, because he loves to travel and speaks many different languages.
Walter’s loves his job, but he does not like having to spend a lot of time away from his family.
Sometimes he misses out on important events with his family, because of work. But there are some exciting advantages that come with Walter’s international travels. Each time he arrives home from traveling, he brings beautiful gifts from the different places he visits. This always creates a lot of excitement leading up to his return home.
Today Virginia is excited because she cannot wait to see her dad, and she is looking forward to finding out what he brought her back from his most recent trip.
Virginia spent the entire morning waiting for Walter to enter the front door of their home. As she gazed through the window near the kitchen table, her mother, Evelyn Dance, cooked breakfast. Virginia and Evelyn always make it a priority to have breakfast together each morning, because Evelyn works late nights and does not always make it home in time to eat dinner with Virginia. Mornings are Virginia and Evelyn’s special time together.
Evelyn works as an evening news anchor for one of the local television stations in New Orleans. Most evenings, Virginia has dinner with her grandmother, Lillian. On rare occasion, Evelyn sneaks away from work to eat dinner with Virginia. However, most times, Evelyn is not home for dinner. She typically arrives home just in time to read Virginia a bed time story and to tuck her in for bed.
While breakfast is a very special time for Virginia and her mom, Virginia was preoccupied this particular morning. Even the smell of Virginia and Evelyn’s favorite breakfast item, lost bread (New Orleans style French toast or pain perdu), could not stop Virginia’s eyes from gazing at the front porch, as she awaited the arrival of her dad.
While gazing at the porch, Virginia fell deep into a daydream that was abruptly interrupted by something sweeping her in the air from the sofa. It was her dad, Walter. Walter snuck in through the garage and surprised Virginia. She screamed with excitement, “Daddy, you’re finally home!”
Virginia’s heart was filled with joy.
Virginia’s mom brought out the lost bread, and the three of them sat down to eat breakfast. After breakfast, Virginia and her family decided to spend the entire day together.
Virginia’s older brother Harold flew home to New Orleans, from Morehouse College in Atlanta, GA. to spend time with the family. It was not often that Virginia could spend time with her entire family all at once. Virginia cherished the time she was able to spend with her family when her dad wasn’t away at work, and her brother wasn’t away at school.
She and her family went to Audubon Zoo and had a picnic in Audubon Park.
Virginia loved animals, and going to Audubon Zoo was one of her favorite activities. Family time continued into late night hours.
Later that night, Virginia and her family went to Café Du Monde, in the French Quarters, to eat beignets and drink Café au Lait, for a latenight snack. Virginia felt so happy spending time with her family that she forgot to ask Walter about the gift that he promised to bring her back from his visit to China.
After several weeks of being home, Virginia’s dad woke up early to check his e-mail and receive his assignment for the next six weeks. He walked away from the computer, and the mood of the entire house shifted. Virginia and Evelyn became very sad. It felt like the assignment zapped all the happy energy out of the room.
Whenever Walter got a new assignment, Virginia would feel a flutter in the pit of her stomach. Virginia’s mom explained to Virginia that this feeling is called anxiety. Virginia worried that the six weeks that Walter was gone would feel like forever. She worried that she would feel sad for the entire six weeks that Walter was gone. She also worried that something would cause Walter to be gone for longer than six weeks.
Evelyn reminded Virginia to say her “I Am” affirmations to invite more positive feelings in and to release the negative emotions. The “I Am” affirmations help Virginia to boldly state how she would like to feel. Virginia went into her room and began reading her affirmations from her pin board.
“I am powerful. I am loved. I am brave. I am worthy. I am special. I am kind.”
Virginia took a deep breath and felt calm. She accepted that, once again, it was time for Walter to leave.
Virginia decided that instead of focusing on her dad leaving, which was making her feel sad, she would, instead, focus on enjoying the remaining time she had to spend with him. Walter reminded Virginia that he still needed to give her the gift he brought her back from China. Walter presented her with a beautiful pink pallet made of pearls.
“At night before you go to sleep, lay this pink pearl pallet next to your bed and keep this globe on your night stand, said Walter. When you lay in bed you will feel a puff of wind, he explained. The globe will spin to wherever I am and the pallet will bring you to me in your dreams,” said Walter.
Walter, then, pulled out a beautiful golden globe made of porcelain and marble that he had gotten while working in China. The pallet and globe were her gifts from his last work assignment.
That night, Virginia followed her dad’s instructions. She placed the pearl pink pallet next to her bed and she placed the globe on her nightstand. After doing so, she climbed in her bed to go to sleep. Suddenly, she felt a puff of wind. The globe spun to Egypt. Then, the pallet floated off the floor and on to Virginia’s bed. She hopped on the pallet and flew out of the window.
The pallet flew so high into the sky that Virginia was surrounded by beautiful fluffy white clouds. They felt like cotton and she played with them as she flew through the air.
Slowly, the flying pallet began to descend lower and lower. Virginia began to see a very large ship in the distance. As she got closer to the ship, she could see a tall man waving.
It was her dad. Joy filled the air as the pallet began to slow down just enough to scoop up her dad.
Together, they flew into the air as Walter said, “I told you I would meet you in your dreams”.
“I have a lot of places to show you, so let’s get started, because we don’t have much time,” he said.
As they flew off together, Virginia began to feel very cold. She looked at her dad and said, “Daddy, I’m freezing.”
“Well look down my dear, we’re flying over the Sinai Peninsula and it’s very mountainous so it gets very cold,” he said. “Let’s drop down and you can experience a camel ride across the Sinai mountains, said Walter.”
Virginia loved animals, so she was ecstatic about the camel ride.
Virginia enjoyed the camel ride and they were off to their next Egyptian adventure. “Daddy, look, I think I see a girl that looks like me!”
Virginia was correct. The young Egyptian girl appeared to be the same age as Virginia. “Yes she does look a lot like you, let’s go meet her,” said Virginia’s dad.”
“Yayyyyyyy!!” Virginia exclaimed.
Virginia introduced herself to the young Egyptian girl. “Hi, I’m Virginia Dance and I’m six years old. What’s your name?”
The girl began to talk, but Virginia could not understand her because she spoke a different language.
Virginia looked at the girl with confusion. “Daddy, what is she saying?” “She speaks Arabic and we speak English. That is why the two of you don’t understand one another. People from different places speak different languages. I understand what she is saying because I speak both English and Arabic. Let me help the two of you.”
Virginia’s dad began talking to the young Egyptian girl in Arabic and translating to Virginia in English. “Her name is Sami and she is also six years old,” Virginia’s dad explained. She says that she is happy to meet you.”
Virginia’s dad began talking to the young Egyptian girl in Arabic and translating to Virginia in English.
“Her name is Sami and she is also six years old,” Virginia’s dad explained. She says that she is happy to meet you.”
Sami extended her arms, and Virginia and Sami hugged. Sami invited Virginia to attend a yoga class with her in Cairo.
They shared a yoga practice and then Virginia and her dad hopped on the pallet and flew off to their next stop. They waved good-bye to their new friend Sami as the traveled on to their next adventure.
“Daddy, look at that statue!” exclaimed Virginia.
“That is the Great Sphinx of Giza. We are in Giza, and this is one of the most famous statues in the world. It is thousands of years old.”
“Daddy, look, it looks like the French Market in New Orleans?” Where are we now?”
“That is a great observation. We are back in Cairo. We are at a local street market where vendors sell all kinds of items, similar to the French Market, back home. This market is actually a very famous bazaar where your mother and I met. I was working in Egypt at the time, doing an international exchange through a Fulbright Specialist program. Your mom was a student at Spelman College doing a summer study abroad program. We fell in love in Egypt and got married one year later, after your mother graduated from
“You and Mommy met in Egypt, asked Virginia?
“Yes we did. said Walter”
“Wow! So, why don’t we live in Egypt, asked Virginia?”
“Well because we wanted to raise a family in the city where we grew up. So we decided to move to New Orleans, explained Walter.”
“Aren’t you glad that you live in the same city as granny. Asked Walter?”
“Yes, if I didn’t live in the same city as granny, I wouldn’t have anyone to eat dinner with, said Virginia.
“This is true, Walter laughed.”
“Let’s stop at a crystal shop in the bazaar, so that you can pick out some crystals to add to your crystal collection at home, said Walter,”
“Wow, Daddy, where are all these colors coming from?”
“We’re flying through a rainbow. Now we’re in Alexandria and it just stopped raining, so the rainbow has formed. Have you ever heard of ROY G. BIV?”
“No, who’s that?”
“Well, each letter of that name represents all the colors in the rainbow. R is for red. O is for orange. Y is for yellow. G is for green. B is for blue. I is for indigo. V is for violet.”
Alexandria is a special place. It’s a port city, like New Orleans and it actually has some of the same kinds of flooding issues that we have in New Orleans because of its rising sea levels. Its situated very low in elevation to the Nile Delta.
“Daddy, the sun is coming back up again.”
“Yes dear, we are approaching northeast of Cairo Egypt and the sun is rising here,” said Walter. “Daytime is beginning in Cairo,” said Walter.
“Dad, it’s so green…what are all these trees?” asked Virginia?
“They’re called citrus orchards or citrus farms, let’s drop down and pick up some oranges to snack on” said Walter.
“Daddy, what are all these pictures I keep seeing,” asked Virginia?
“The pictures that you keep seeing are the Ancient Egyptian form of writing know as hieroglyphics,” said Walter. “We use letters to form words for our written language and the Egyptian ancient language uses pictures that symbolize sounds,” said Walter.
We are in a place, called Luxor. We are going to stop here so that you can tour Queen Hatshepsut’s Temple. She was the most successful pharoah to rule Egypt and men tried to erase her from history, and for hundreds of years. Very little was known about her until Egyptian scholars decoded hieroglyphics on walls of the temples. This is her temple, known as Valley of the Queen.
“Look, daddy the sun is falling down.”
“No dear, the sun is not exactly falling down, it is actually setting. When the sun sets it becomes nighttime and gets dark because the sun is no longer providing us with light.”
We are in Sharm El Sheikh. It’s known for its beaches and resorts.
“Daddy, look, I see the beach. Can we stop and play?” asked Virginia
“Yes, but only for a little while because I have to get back to work. Let’s do a hot air balloon ride over the beach.
After the hot air balloon ride, Virginia and her Walter made a sand castle together.
After making the sand castle, they flew off and headed towards Walter’s ship. It was time for Walter to get back to work. Walter hopped off the pallet, and Virginia flew off into the clouds.
Virginia played with the clouds all the way home. Once she arrived at home, she flew into her window, placed the pallet under the bed, and climbed back into bed and fell asleep.
Virginia woke up the next morning to Evelyn calling her name and to the smell of their favorite breakfast, lost bread.
“Virginia, pick up the telephone, it’s your dad,” said Evelyn. Virginia ran to the phone.
“Hey Daddy,” Virginia said picking up the phone.
“Hey Virginia, did you have fun last night?” “Yes daddy, she said laughing.”
“Okay, I’m glad you like Egypt. I’ll meet you again in your dreams. Get ready for our next adventure…we’re headed to Italy.”
“Okay dad, I’ll see you in Italy…I mean in my dreams,” she said.