Seriously

I’ve been an editor for almost a year. In that time, I’ve gotten letters from students all across the U.S. I’ve gotten letters from foreign countries, prisons, and people searching for husbands/wives in the U.S. or wanting us to send them money. I’ve read poems and teen’s testimonies. But today, well, today I got a new kind of letter. It was from the country of Ghana. I usually open these letters, then pass them upline, which is our policy for foreign letters. So I slit open the envelope, pulled out the letter and unfolded the bottom half. When I did, I saw half of a picture. . . .of a naked woman! I hastily folded the envelope and stuffed it back into the envelope and stared at my hand like it had been burned. I didn’t read the letter; I didn’t know what to do. So I took it to my EIC and although I couldn’t form full sentences, tried to explain what was in the envelope. He looked at me like I was crazy as I backed out of his office. I knew he understood my reference to “really bad things” and “naked people” when I heard him exclaim and slam the picture face down on his desk. Apparently, this woman really wants out of Ghana and had written to any American address she could find and included pictures–porn pictures–of herself.

The letter and picture has since been shredded. The story, though, will live in infamy!