SERGEANT GUARDIAN

Bay of Plenty Beacon, Volume 5, Issue 46, 29 April 1942, Page 6

SERGEANT GUARDIAN

(N.Z.E.F. Official News Service) Eighteen months ago, she was a little beggar girl, a mere tot of six years, plaintively appealing to the hurrying passers-by in Sharia Fouad el Awal J'or a few meagre piastres. To-day, neatly -dressed, in European clothes, she is a promising young pupil at the American Girls' College. The cause of this "Pygmalion" transformation is the kindness of a lieutenant in the 2nd N.Z.E.F. It Avas during leave days in Caii'o when the New Zealander, then a sergeant, began to take notice of the little Egyptian girl. Ragged and barefoot, she wjis always standing somewhere about the- same place. Sometimes she was selling pieces of sticky candy. Almond-eyed, somewhat shy and always smiling, she seemed different from the usual type of beggar child. The New Zealander would slip a piastre into her hand as he passed. Soon she used to watch for him. One day he asked her if she was hungry. She said she was. He took her into a restaurant and ordered the most substantial meal she had ever seen in her life. When she had eaten as much as she could manage, she pulled a tiny brass ring off her finger, and handed it to him. She was going to pay her way. The New Zealander thought to j himself "That's good enough." It swayed him towards a course he had been half considering for some time. He decided that he would take the child under his care, send her to school, and so give her a better chance in life. At her tumble-down home in a city back street, the New Zealand soldier found the child's mother. There were also six brothers, all younger than his protegee, who was the chief breadwinner of the family. The father was dead, though the eldest ol" the brothers sometimes made an odd piastre on the streets. At first, the mother Avas not very keen to let her daughter go. Moslem IaAV made things difficult. Besides, Avho was going to keep the house? Suitable arrangements Avere at last made, which coincided with the child's uncle getting employment at a British camp, and the girl was sent to school. The transformation Avas amazing, even to the Ncav Zealander, who expected the best. Before lea\ r ing her home, the girl could speak only Arabic, with which the New Zealander is very familiar, but could neither read nor Avrite. Her progress has been rapid, not only in her native language, but also in English, which Avas entirely foreign to her. Soon she Avill be commencing French. She has become a mistress of etiquette and politeness, and takes a pride in her tidy appearance. Every fortnight she goes home to visit her mother and brothers, both parties taking the transformation with Oriental ease. At school she is popular Avith other pupils of all nationalities. Although li\ing in Cairo all her life, this little girl had never seen the Nile, neA'er set eyes on the Pyramids. When told she AA*as going out for a trip to Maadi, she said she would have to say good-ibye to her mother before making such a long journey. On the usual tiring 'train ride to Ismailia, her tiny nose AA*as glued to the carriage window the whole trip, that is till she fell asleep Avith utter Aveariness. She used to call her benefactor "Uncle Don." Then she changed it t«l "abuyi," which is Arabic fc'r father Noav she calls him 'poppa."