Chapter 11: Monday at AME

Chapter 11: Monday at AME

Monday (and Sunday)
July 15, 2019

A class at AME means an early morning start. Unfortunately, we got out the door later than we hoped, had to backtrack to get Jay’s phone, ran into clogged traffic due to police doing random vehicle inspections, and stopped at three different ATMs to find one that had cash — all prior to arriving to the university. From Jay’s office I was driven to AME and made my way to the classroom, for the first time, by myself. Not only did I arrive a few minutes past 9:00, but the projector was missing from the classroom. My AME faculty member and friend

Anthony Kimba tracked down the projector, and we were finally up and running. Calvin arrived shortly after me and class was in session. We reviewed the previous lesson on skipped gradient and had a few volunteer students come to the front of the class and recite the symptoms for absence of mass. Then we launched into the misunderstood word.

This was introduced by a short passage projected onto the board: “The kite flew high in the sky. It looked beautiful and

graceful as it dipped and soared. It must have been hungry and looking for its dinner.” Calvin took over and did a fine job of walking through these sentences, and getting the students to see how one word and its different definitions: “kite”, changes everything about the meaning of the words together and their context. We spent quite a bit of time going over the various misunderstood word reactions, reciting them, etc. This lead to each student being assigned the task of demonstrating in clay a different reaction. Fun time! Busy time!

By the time the clay demos were done, I think I photographed every single student individually and many of their clays. Again, I raced around the room listening for “Mr. Taufer!” This was definitely busy time for me.

For the last part of the morning’s lesson, I used the Liberian flag. The point being that symbols can also be misunderstood. The single star on the Liberia flag represents the country being the first, independent, Western-style republic in Africa. The blue field on which the star sits represents the continent of Africa. Many students seemed to know these facts well. Now they all do. All of this helps set the stage for the next lesson on Wednesday where we will go through the Liberian pledge, line by line, word by word, and make sure they have the correct definition for every word, and in turn the true meaning of the pledge. Doing this exercise in previous Liberian presentations has proven very effective and very powerful. Stay tuned.

A few words about Sunday. The main focus of this day of relaxation was a daytrip to visit Jay’s father and family. Another road trip! Theirs is a spacious house full of brightly colored furniture, wide hallways, and just the right amount of pictures and decor throughout. (The yet-to-be-completed house on Jay’s lot is very similar to Jay’s father’s in layout and spaciousness. It will be quite the residence when it is completed!) Myia played with a young girl exactly her age and size. We were served a very Liberian lunch, complete with a chilled bag of water. The main course was a spicy (of course!) stew of mixed meats — chicken, fish, chicken feet, crab, pork — served with rice. Tasty and sinus-clearing.

Even though our destination was maybe ten or fifteen short miles away, the road and traffic conditions made this a good one hour drive there and an hour or more coming back. The paved roads were packed and the dirt roads were roller coasters of pits, puddles, and ditches. We drove through

streams flooding over the roads. We bounced down alleyways filled with motorcycles, pedestrians, dogs, and children. Jay often reached back to brace Myia’s head as she slept through the bouncing and jouncing. It was a blast. The range of vigorous twists and turns and bounces my spine and neck have experienced in the last few weeks will not be forgotten.

But the most thrilling part of the day’s drive was the return home when we made our way through Red Light Market at peak market time in the late afternoon. (This is not to be confused with the proper definition of a “red-light district”. Though I am pretty sure it wouldn’t be too hard to find characters from a red light district in the Red Light Market.) For the first few minutes of our trip through this area, I was stunned, speechless. I have no photos to share from this episode. Even though we were in a vehicle, windows up, doors locked, Jay told me to hide my phone. (The image you see is from Google Images.)

Imagine the busiest flea market you’ve ever been to. Now imagine half the people moving through the market are in vehicles — motorcycles, three-wheeled carts, cars, trucks, wheelbarrows - and the vehicles are allowed to drive wherever they want to. Now imagine the roadway is muddy, rutted, pockmarked, uneven, and covered with rubbish. People, cars, animals, carts are packed together, everyone touching, nudging, pushing their way through the throng. Personal space is measured in centimeters not feet. Brushing up against the truck’s windows and doors and bumpers is what you do to squeeze by. Jay warned that to accidentally bump a pedestrian or vehicle could incite a mini-riot. For minutes on end we were at a stand still, caught in a current of yelling, shoving, hawking, noisy, humanity. We crawled forward in spurts. Jay expertly inched the truck through the masses, until about 30 minutes later we came out the other side, picked up speed, and headed home.

A few successes...

"I think getting the misunderstood words will be helpful to my study. I don't really get English well because of the French. That's why it will be very helpful. I like what all happened today." - Binton Cisse

"I learned about the third barrier to study and it is the misunderstood word and also how they make you feel. If we continue to see the mass and also if we continue to play game and use the clay, because it is said that 'Study without mass makes Jack a dull boy.' I like that we are not too tired in class and how we are happy. Thanks!" - Lela R. Bestman