Taxis and Tiny People

I got into a cab a few days ago and met Gladys.

First let me tell you about taxis- Tema is a large town divided into 22 communities. Each community has special features-the market, the station, the port, my school, etc. You really need to take a cab to go most places, but never fear it only costs 35 cents. When you hail a cab you hold up the number of fingers according to the community you want to go to-Luckily the communities I keep going to are #1,#4 and #5 because no one has explained to me how to ‘finger-hail’ a cab if you want to go to a community >10! When you get into a cab you exchange pleasantries with everyone in the cab, then, in my case, you explain why you are in Tema (I sorta stick out)and that is generally met with much interest and gratitude.

I was taking a cab this day to go to an area I’d been to before and walk around-no particular agenda. Gladys was in the front seat and she told me she was a nursery school teacher-the next thing I know I’d agreed to go visit her school . I smiled to myself “OK I’ve just been kidnapped by a preschool teacher and I have no idea where I’m going!” The school was in an area near the market place where I’d visited before and not too far. She paid my fare.

The school was about 4 or 5 rooms filled with teeny little children all in little red and white uniforms napping on the floor. Each of 3 rooms had anywhere from 20-40 kids. I met Agnes the head and the other 3 teachers-it seemed perfectly normal that Gladys had brought home a stray. Since the children were napping I asked if I could come back later in the week and perhaps read to some of them ...and that’s what I did today.

I read to the 4 and 5 year olds because they are learning English and I figured they’d understand most of what I read. When I walked into the room they all stood and chanted a 2-3 minute verse that started “You are welcome to our class…” I read the Very Hungry Caterpillar (it has GREAT pictures) and Dr. Seuss’ Hop on Pop (they repeated every line). Then they all stood and recited rhymes (some I knew), sang songs and then danced for me in 2’s. ( Blog experiment-see if the short video I took works) School starts Monday but I’m going to try to find time to come back and visit every week or two. These little guys will be a nice break from teenagers!