I Will Always Write Back

In Mrs. Jarai’s class of over 15 students in Zimbabwe, Martin is one of the 10 people to receive a letter from a pen pal from the US. He receives this opportunity because he belongs to Group One, which is made up of the top-performing students in the class. When Martin reads his letter from Caitlin aloud in class, everybody laughs as he struggles to pronounce his pen pal’s last name and where she comes from. When Martin arrives home, he excitedly tells his mother about his letter from Caitlin. While his mother generally does not approve of him interacting with girls, she tells him, “You can learn many things from her” (21). Martin writes his letter to Caitlin using her letter as a template and briefly describes his life in Zimbabwe. He writes to her that he will always write back.

As weeks pass in October, Caitlin witnesses her classmates receiving responses from their pen pals in Europe. She is disappointed that she has not heard back from Martin. Finally, she receives a letter from Martin a week before Halloween. As she reads his letter, she realizes that Martin is likely Black and unlike her. The only Black people she has interacted with are other Americans like herself. She had a Black best friend in kindergarten, Marlena, who she upset one day by unraveling one of her braids. Caitlin did not understand that Black hair was different from her own.

Caitlin concocts a plan to find out what Martin looks like. She decides to send a school photograph of herself with her next letter to him, asking him to include a photograph of him in return.

When Martin receives Caitlin’s letter, he is excited to find her photograph enclosed. He shows the picture to his mother and father, who exclaim that Caitlin is a “[v]ery pretty Murungu” (35), or white person. Martin panics because he is not sure he can afford to send Caitlin a photograph back, as she has requested. His family does not make enough money to afford a professional photographer to take his photograph.

Martin ponders this dilemma as he makes his way to the Mutare Board and Paper Mill, to collect his father’s paycheck to bring home to his mother. His mother has tasked him with this chore so that his father does not spend some of the paycheck on Chibuku, a popular alcohol beverage. At the paper mill, Martin meets Mr. Mutandwa, the head of human resources, who encourages the young student to go to college. Martin wants to grow up to be like Mr. Mutandwa but is unsure how he will be able to go to college, as neither of his parents ever finished secondary school. However, Mr. Mutandwa’s encouragement gives him the same confidence as Caitlin’s letter.

Back at home, Martin tells his mother about the photograph. She suggests that he send her the photograph of him from the day he scored the highest on the national placement exam of anyone in Mutare, Zimbabwe. It is the only photograph they own. Martin writes back to Caitlin later that night with that photograph enclosed.