Taking Flight And Bess Kargman's Film: First Position

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Michaela’s journey from being a war orphan to a ballerina is a good one. I first looked at Michaela because her book said “War Orphan to Star Ballerina”. I wanted to know her journey there. She went through many challenges and overcame them. Michaela is most known for her book Taking Flight and Bess Kargman’s film called First Position. Michaela went through a lot during her childhood. She was born as Mabinty Bangura on January 6, 1995. Her parents believed that education was very important, which is why she was able to read, write, and speak 4 languages. Her uncle thought that was not a necessity in life and that women should learn to cook and clean. One day Michaela’s cousin came and told her mother that her father had been killed by a …show more content…

After a while Michaela’s mother got sick and died. Part of it was from starvation because she would give most of her very little amount of food to Michaela. Michaela watched as her mother was buried and wanted to jump in with her because she had nothing else to live for. Since her Uncle Abdullah hated her and didn’t think she was worth feeding, he put her in an orphanage. After that Michaela turned into orphan Number 27. Eventually, Michaela became friends with Mabinty Suma, orphan Number 26. Mabinty was Michaela’s only friend because kids were afraid of her and her vitiligo. The aunties at the orphanage were very unkind to Michaela. One time Auntie Fatmata sprinkled ground powder chilli pepper all over face while sleeping and her eyes felt on fire. It went into nostrils and she started coughing and sneezing while Auntie Fatmata just stood there and laughed. Michaela was tired of Auntie Fatmata so she decided to pretend to have voodoo powers. Auntie Fatmata was so scared, that she never hit Michaela again. At the orphanage they had a teacher who taught them english named Sarah. Michaela really liked Teacher Sarah and walk her to the gate of the orphanage every day.

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