The Stranger's Farewell

(Bilingual English-Urdu edition) This timeless story has entertained people all over the world for hundreds of years. When a stranger who has been traveling for many days stops at the home of a young couple to ask for a glass of water and a place to rest, they make him welcome and invite him to share their meal. As we all know, small actions sometimes have large consequences, and this one did. As the stranger leaves to go on his way, he says, "May the next thing you do last until you say 'Enough.'" These parting words reward the couple's generosity in an amazing way. News of their changed status travels fast and prompts a greedy merchant to seek out the stranger in the hope of gaining a similar reward for himself - but, of course, the result for him is very different. This tale can teach us - in a very accessible way - something about the nature of giving and receiving. Its setting - Afghanistan, where the story is widely known - introduces children to a culture and a people that may be unfamiliar to them. The tale is retold here for young people by the Afghan storyteller and teacher Palwasha Bazger Salam, and is beautifully illustrated by Marie Lafrance.

Palwasha Bazger Salam holds degrees in early childhood education from Kabul University in Afghanistan and from the University of Las Vegas in Nevada, where she currently lives and teaches. As Director of Teacher Education in Kabul for Hoopoe Books' Books for Afghanistan program, she helped develop the program's Afghan curriculum, trained the Afghan teacher-training staff and translated Hoopoe's books into Dari and Pashto. Ms. Salam comes from a family of storytellers and has continued that tradition in her retelling of two Hoopoe titles: The Wisdom of Ahmad Shah and The Stranger's Farewell. Palwasha Bazger Salam heeft een onderwijsdiploma voor jonge kinderen van de Kabul Universiteit in Afghanistan en de Universiteit van Las Vegas in Nevada, waar ze momenteel woont en les geeft. Als directeur van de lerarenopleiding in Kabul van het Hoopoe Books' Books for Afghanistan programma, hielp zij bij de ontwikkeling van het Afghaanse curriculum van het programma, trainde de Afghaanse lerarenopleiding en vertaalde Hoopoe's boeken in Dari en Pashto. Mevrouw Salam komt uit een familie van verhalenvertellers en heeft die traditie voortgezet in haar hervertelling van twee Hoopoe-titels: De wijsheid van Ahmad Shah en Het afscheid van de vreemdeling.