My world changed dramatically last week when I invited 14 year old Ramatu - my mother’s protegee - to come and live with us so that she could go to a propper school. “She’s will be all yours,” her father said after he had told me how happy he was about the offer, and although Ramatu still belongs to her own family (her father and sister live only a twenty minute walk away), her development for now on is completely in our hands. Caring for a 14 year old, who is so much a child at heart, has given us a lot of joy but also added to the challenge of keeping a functioning house, serving meals at specific hours (gone are the days of skipping breakfast!) and helping with the challenge of homework.

The firstmost reason for inviting Ramatu to move in with us, was so that she would be able to go to St Joseph, the finest school in town. Situated at the far end of town, the only way to get there is by the school’s own school bus.

On Monday last week, I brought my mother’s two protegees Abubakar and Ramatu and signed them in. The level at this school is very high compared to other standards, and so both children were in for a shock after their first day. The good news for Abubakar was that he was invited for school lunches over at our place, were I help them work through their lessons and add homework to that, so that they will have a chance to catch up with the other children. Coming from the state system, both children had to be tested in order to be allowed to be placed in a class. After a day of observation, the team of teachers wanted to lower them both from 4th grade to 5th grade, but with Abubakar being the stronger student. I talked to the principle and we decided to let both children stay in 5th grade, and to see their development over the past year. Abubakar is a hungry student who loves to learn and although this year will be a challenge for him, we all believe that he has the chance to pass through. The school has a 100% successrate of the 5th grade exams (before the children pass on to “collège”, which is the American equivalent of junior high) and are - like a good driving school - not eager to pass on students whom they are not confident will pass. Not wanting to decourage Abubakar - and seeing that Ramatu has issues with her age (she is 14, going on 15 in June) - I told the principle that whether the children stay in 5th grade or are lowered to 4th grade, I will still have to do the same efforts in teaching them French (which they desperatly need at this level!) and helping them aquire the skills they need to pursue their studies. We came to an agreement, that both children will stay in their original class (Ramatu has already doubled 5th grade, so lowering her to 4th grade would be a hard blow), but that their teacher will give them an informal test before the official exams. If he feels that the children are ready, they will go to the exams, and otherwise, they will repeat 5th grade and hopefully make the exams next year.

After working with them for a week (and with the help of Renate and the others), I have high hopes for Abubakar, who loves to study. Ramatu however is not interested in the abstract, and here, the French curriculum is not helping. The level of language used in 5th grade is so high that not even I know the meaning of some of the words, that the children are meant to pick up and use themselves, even though I know they have no equivalent word in their native language. As Abubakar is so interested in harvesting knowledge, explaining the abstract for him is not a problem; whereas for Ramatu, it’s a true challenge. Having worked a week, I simply cannot see that she has the passion to take on the immense task that is building up ahead of her, but I will not discourage her. This year has been paid for and during the months to come, we will study diligently. I will explain all the things I know she can relate to - and leave out some of the heaviest things - compair and explain everything that I see is possible to explain, and we will just take it from there. She enjoys going to school with Abubakar, and Tabita - who just started preschool - is thrilled to have a new best friend on the same bus as her!

My reserve plan for Ramatu is to let her learn a trade, and Ringo the tailor has generoulsy agreed to teach her his. My mother saw this in her before she passed away, and everything Ramatu has done with Ringo has left a smile on her face. Ramatu loves practical things and there is a mutual connection between my mother’s protegee Ramatu and my mother’s tailor and good friend Ringo. Should it after six months turn out that Ramatu has no desire to carry on with school, this is a good backup plan for a girl who will then be 15 years old (going on 16) and in need of learning a trade.

In the meantime, both Anette and I are busy passing forward all the knowelge we can think of which we know might be useful for her. During the first few days, Ramatu was exceedingly timid and quiet, but during the past few days, her barrier of timidy has been broken and she is daring to talk to us, even when she is unsure of how to express herself in French. We recently found a book in Hausa to read which has given us much joys in the evenings; this is the first book in her own tongue that Ramatu has ever come across. She doesn’t know how to read Hausa (yet) as the writing is based on English pronounciation and not French - and I know how to read it, but do not know all the words I read and do not always get the intonation right. This, however, gives Ramatu an idea of how it is to have to learn an amazing amount of knowledge in a language you do not master, and I hope that by having her realise that words are there to tell a story, she will get over her fear over what she doesn’t understand and look at books as something that tells a story; not only something that hits you with words you have no clue what they are, as children of Niger are often left to believe.

That said, we have having fun being “parents”. On Sunday morning, Anette and I went to the market place to buy clothes and other needed things for a young teenage girl who came with 5 items and 3 sets of clothes. We were happy to find everything we were looking for. Next thing will be to take Ramatu to the hairdresser. Lol, this really IS fun!

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