Chris in Togo: David and Sica

David and Sica on the first day of school. He still prefers to sit by her.

When I first met David and Sica I thought they must be twins. I learned early on that they both spoke English, because their parents were from Nigeria. What took me longer to learn was that they were only half-brother and sister. Same father, different mothers. It is fairly common here for men to have more than one wife.

David is very protective of Sica. Should any other child decide to take a toy from her, David is there, ready to take it back for her. He does not always demonstrate that kindness himself. One day he took something from Sica--it wasn't a toy, maybe a piece of paper or the top of a pen--and she pitched a royal fit. He refused to return it, and she screamed and kicked her feet for fifteen minutes or so. I was amazed at her endurance.

Sica and I first bonded after a few weeks of school. She somehow injured her foot at home, and the teacher sent her to the clinic because it was bothering her. They cleaned and bandaged the wound and continued to do so for a couple of weeks. One day Sica's mom came to school so that she could thank the clinic staff for taking care of her daughter. Sica became very unhappy that she didn't get to go back home with her mom and sat and cried. Tata brought her chair over beside mine. As Sica continued to cry, I patted her shoulder and talked quietly with her. The next day, she sat on my lap as frequently as she could.

She still likes to cuddle with me, but, like all of the older children, not as much as she did previously.

David attracted my attention when he played with the Fisher Price guitar at playtime. He would hold it and strum it, of course, (the battery is dead, so no sound came out) and sing what sounded like "Yeah, yeah, yeah." I sang along with him, which he enjoyed. Nowadays, he comes to me sometimes for help in writing his letters and numbers.

David is easily distracted, and slow to respond. The tradition here is to stand when you're answering a teacher's question. It takes him what seems to be two or three minutes to prepare to answer. He has usually kicked off his shoes and he has to put them back on and then stand. Then there is a second or two of hesitation and finally he responds. Usually correctly. It takes him a long time to practice writing on his slate and to complete the worksheets. Tata told me early on in the school year that he would probably be repeating next year.

That will be a good thing, I think. He was out of school for nearly two weeks before Spring Break and didn't return until the second week after. During that time his writing skill improved. He is a tad bit faster and his letters are tidier. I believe he is one of those children whose readiness to learn proceeds at a different pace than their chronological age.

Sica has an older brother at the school, Dominique, who walks the children to and from home. He is not a lot older--I think he is in second grade--and seems to be a little slow. One afternoon in the fall, a man came to the house bringing all three children with him. He seemed upset and wanted to speak to Dela. She was in her room on the phone, so it took me a while to get her attention and bring her outside. By that time the man had left, along with the children. While I had thought that he was their father and was upset about something that had happened at school, it turns out that he was just a guy on a motorcycle who had noticed that the kids were lost. He picked them up and brought them to the house, but then got tired of waiting on Dela, so he took them to the police station. Dela had to go there to get the children. I am not sure how the scene played out, but she had to call the teacher to verify who they were and they found someone to take them home. It turns out that David had told Dominique they needed to turn right out of the school gate to get home, even though they live to the left. Tata could not believe that Dominique had believed David. For the next few days, she made sure that there was an even older child to accompany them home.

Here are more recent photos of the two.