World citizens

I was a bit taken aback this afternoon when I realized that at least three of the six girls in Juvenile Hall that I was meeting with were unaware that there will be a national election in November.  It came while we were working on our postcrossing.com project.  Three of the mailed postcards have been received and registered which invited discussion about how someone a zillion miles away had been thinking of them.  (I figure anything that brings these girls into the world community is therapy!)

We were discussing the two cards that were going out today.  A woman in Philadelphia gave a list of suggestions as to what someone might write to her, one being "what's going on in your country right now, political topics are okay."  One girl mentioned the upcoming election and several others were shocked to learn about it.  ("Oh, that's sick!")  Since she's in Pennsylvania they figured she might know all about that even if they didn't.

A woman in Moscow said she loves oceans and beaches but there are none near her.  I whipped out my fold-up map, we located Russia and Moscow and, sure enough, there's no water near her.  This came as a surprise.  Furthermore, her two closest oceans are the Arctic and Atlantic.  So the two girls who were writing to her mentioned that they live near the Pacific Ocean and hoped that would catch her attention.  It was obvious that they take "their" ocean for granted thinking everyone lives a few miles from one.