The African children DO have names

Well, as of tomorrow, Sydney will have gone to the local maternelle 2 weeks. Roger drops her off on his way to work and I pick her up at 11:30. Some mornings she doesn't want to go. She says they speak French and she doesn't understand. It must be a bit difficult at times.

I believe she doesn't get to talk much at school, because the whole walk home is one long monologue. She talks non-stop about all she did at school or all she learned that day, or about how badly she needs to go to the toilet--I think she's afraid of the "squat pot" at school.

Learning French was one reason we were glad for her to go to the maternelle. Another was for her to make friends, of which she has a few. She talks about them often. At first they had no names, it was just, "the girl with the hair leelees" (most of the girls have their hair in braids) or "the boy with the brown sandals". One girl is called "the thumper girl" because Sydney taught her how to thump things--and, unfortunately, people. However, she came home Monday with a name, Israel. He seems to be the boy she plays with the most. The 2 of them find and collect bottle caps, which Sydney calls "wine bottle lids", and do various other things.

Today she had some big news. She had found out the name of another girl. Ida (pronounced Eeda for all the anglophones). This was particularly noteworthy because one of Fiona's favorite shows is one she saw in Germany about a sort of Dennis-the-Menace character with a longsuffering sister named Ida. Sydney somehow identifies herself with this little sister and was particularly excited to get home and tell Fiona. Now we have 2 names. Oh, and there is another Marie as well, but we don't hear much about her.

One thing is really annoying. It actually seems that WE don't have names here. We thought we'd gotten used to the fact that people call us "Yovo" whenever we show up. But now it has taken on another dimension. There have been days, when I pick Sydney up at lunch time, where half the school has followed us, chanting "Yovo, Yovo..." Imagine the Pied Piper being followed, and you would have a pretty good picture. It's a bit sad as the school has tried to tell the other students that we are their "friends" and not just "white people". I guess it's just another "learning" opportunity.