Un 1 Benn, Deux 2 Naar, Trois 3 Neet…

Un 1 Benn, Deux 2 Naar, Trois 3 Neet… She poked her head into my room (cottager as I like to think of it), I urged her to come in and she shyly did so with a sweet smile, teeth missing. Curiosity overcame shyness and she began asking me about the different things in my room, she then began showing how high she could count to in French. Shortly there after Mama Awa (as I have started calling) informed me that this little girl was in fact new to the village in search of an education, She is one of 10 children who are refused education by their father. She was sent here by her mother to live with family in order to begin going to school. Ando so begins the tale of N’dieme, 7 or 8 (she doesn’t know her age), She diligently comes over everyday after lunch and says “Jang” (learn). Her desire to learn is both heart breaking and inspiring. At times the slow process is frustrating; many times I have to remind myself how old she is, her situation, etc. talking myself off of the ledge of anger and frustration with a little girl who struggles with the difference between 1, 2, 3 and the relationship between 1 Un, 2 Deux, 3 Trois. Although slow, progress has indeed been made. Daily we practice with flash cards going in and out of order, I have explained to her that it is ok to say “I don’t know” or “I don’t remember”; I have taken her success as my success (perhaps this is the source of most of my frustration, I should probably just allow her success to be her own.) I am eager to get her up to speed with other children starting the school year in October, perhaps just as eager as I am to showing others around that it is indeed possible to teach without hitting, screaming or shaming a child because they do not know the answer. I am determined to show people that education is possible without corporal punishment or shame. Again progress has been slow, but it is progress none the less. After days of tracing over what seemed like ab endless amount of dotted 1, 2 and 3’s, she finally overcame her biggest hurdle the evil 2. I cannot explain the feeling I had when she finally wrote the #2, I was so proud of her I thought I was going to cry and then I looked into her eyes and saw how proud she was of herself, it was beautiful. That night we continued passed dark and continued studying by candle light, her thirst for knowledge had been amplified by her success. We have now moved on to learning 4,5,6 and armed with the image of her proudly showing me her 2, the most wonderful 2 I have ever seen, I will continue the slow, frustrating yet wonderful process of teaching N’dieme.