The Twelve

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Book 1: Cry, The Beloved Country

    Kumalo encounters a great amount of conflict with his family and he changed throughout Book 1 of Cry, The Beloved Country. This has classified Kumalo has a dynamic and a round character. Also Kumalo is a realistic character because I can look at his experiences and relate them to people I know in real life.

    Kumalo started off as a humble, passionate person. Kumalo had full faith in God and didn't do wrong to anyone. Kumalo went to Johannesburg and got cheated out his money because he didn't know any better. He was very trusting and he didn't think someone could do such a thing. That is when Kumalo realized that everyone in the world isn't as passionate as him. He started to lose his faith in God, he felt as if he had turned on him. Kumalo lost his faith in The Lord when that should've been the first person he turned to through this difficult time. Johannesburg was a stressful place, therefore Kumalo became stressed and couldn't handle it.

    Kumalo is a very realistic character because the experiences he encounter are realistic. People in the real world get lied to and stole from all the time. Kumalo was just so trusting and not use to those types of actions that he couldn't believe it. He didn't think to question the man because in his mind there was no need to. He stood patiently waiting for the man to come back, thinking what he said was the truth.

    His trusting, humble, passionate, and God like ways made up his personality. That was how people knew of him.  I didn't think him going to Johannesburg would change him, but I can tell you that I was wrong. His sister was "sick", his brother betrayed him, and when it seemed like things couldn't get any worse it did. Kumalo found out his sister, Gertrude, had been selling liquor and became a prostitute. He was ashamed because he had a certain look to uphold with him being a priest. Kumalo's brother had betrayed him Absalom was charged with murder. He acted as if he didn't care, and he thought that no one would believe Absalom. He show no sympathy at all because his son was in the clear so it didn't matter to him.

   In conclusion, Kumalo is a round character and a dynamic character because of the conflict he encounter and how he changed. Having realistic experiences, makes Kumalo a realistic character that we could relate to. Kumalo was humble, passionate, and trusting. This experience changed him in many ways because he was no longer humble. He was no longer the same person we knew at the beginning of the book; if he could speak he'd probably tell us some things just simply got to him.  

I belive in Hope

        I believe in hope. When I was 14 my father passed away. I thought my world had ended, but I later found out that only one of the greatest chapters had ended. I had to be strong. I had to be strong for my family, for myself, and for my father.

 

            My dad was a strong, loving man. My father, Reginald, didn’t let anyone go needing for something they needed. Family was important to him. My father was the only person I knew that would sit and talk to me for hours upon hours. Everyone would get tired of us talking about any and everything. They would simply walk to the other room. This is probably why I can hold longer conversations than any of my friends.

 

When my dad passed away I hoped for the better. I had faith in God that everything would be “Ok” like everyone said it would. At first, I thought no one knew what I was going through. I thought no one knew the pain, the hurt, the depression I had inside of me. I thought no one knew. “How could they know?” I asked myself.  Then I found out I was wrong, someone did know what I was going through. More people than I thought knew what I was going through.

 

The plan was my dad was going to teach me how to drive. He had a love like no other for cars. My dad was going to watch me walk across the stage at graduation. My dad was going to watch me walk up the steps, into the college doors. My dad was going to walk me down the aisle at my wedding. There were so many plans we had planned only to find out that they wouldn’t follow through.

 

I had to remind myself that he will be there through everything I do. Not only will he be there, he will have the best seat in the room. I have hope that he’ll be proud, that he is proud of the young lady that I am becoming. Hope is what got me this far, my hope is what will get me further.

 

 

 

Chicken Spaghetti

Chicken Spaghetti

Ingredients:

1 Pack of spaghetti noddles

4-5 boneless chicken breasts (cooked and chopped)

1 block of Velveeta cheese (chopped into cubes)

1 can of cream of mushroom

2 cans of Rotel (drained)

Preparation:


     The first step is to boil water for the spaghetti noddles in a large enough pan. Be sure to add a little slice of butter to the water so that the noddles don't stick while cooking.  I often requested for this meal to be prepare, but my request was only fulfilled for Thanksgiving, Christmas, and maybe a special occasion. I'd tag along with mother as she would go to prepare my favorite dish.
   
     Waiting for the water to boil seemed to be the longest wait in history. Mom and I would stand around in the kitchen, talking to pass time. I'm talking a mile a mintue, maybe about something that isnt even important. She continues to listen.

    We've prepared this meal so many times together, we don't have to stop and think about the next step.

   The water has came to a boil. I break the noddles up and add them to the boiling water. The boiling slows down while the noddles settle. The noodles are to stay in the water until they're soft.

   Everyone else is usually somewhere waiting for the meal to be prepared. They sit around until they smell the aroma of the food roaming the house. She stirs, I chop.
 
    We laugh and talk about anything that comes to mind. There is no set topic to our conversation. The noddles are ready to be drained. We now can sit those aside until we're ready to use them. We start on the chicken next. "Gabby would you like to do the chicken" She asks. I gladly take the offer. We began to see the meal coming along nicely.

     As I work with the chicken, chopping it to the size needed, mom works on the cheese sauce. She adds both the cheese cubes and Rotel into a large enough pan to melt. Be sure not to let the cheese burn. Once the cheese has melted down enough she slowly stirs in the cream of mushroom. The whole can isn't required, it simply depends on your own desire. If the sauce begins to be too thick then add a little water or milk to loosen up the cheese.

   While mom is doing all of this, I put the noodle into a large bowl to bring all the ingredients together. "Come taste the sauce for me Gabby." I grab a spoon and my reply also seems to be the same, "It tastes fine." She always makes it perfectly with no mistakes. 


    Now that everything is done, remove the sauce from the heat. Preheat the oven to 375 degrees. Stir the sauce into the spaghetti noddles, but take your time pouring. You will not use all the sauce that you have prepared. You can put the remaining sauce in a container and place it I'm the refrigerator.  Once you have added all the sauce you wanted stir in the chopped up meat. Be sure that everything is well stirred together. It's ok to taste some at this time, just to make sure your not leaving out anything. Place the chicken spaghetti into a casserole pan and place it in the oven for at least 10-15 minutes. This will had some what of a crust to the spaghetti.

     Once the oven goes off let the dish cool for 5 minutes then grab a plate and enjoy!   



My Short Story

As a reader, I am curious.

When writing I fully explain thoughts.

I'm an individual aiming for success.