Vickie Remoe Institute of Digital Communications

If Hawanatu is Sierra Leone’s Future…then fear not, cause it is super bright

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‘ode to Hawa…the Baby Genius

(before she was a mouth full)

I have a two year old neice who leaves at home with us. She is the center of our world at home and everyday she amazes us at the amount of knowledge that she amasses. The other night i was sitting at the dinning room table teasing her and she said “aunty vickie tay sumpe mi” in temne…translation aunty stop bothering me. What really astonished wasn’t so much her use of a second language, and a phrase i didnt know until then…rather it was that she used it in the appropriate context.

I’ve been observing hawanatu now since then and everyday is a WOW. Most recently her 14 year old cousin munchichi (who i will post about soon) was kicked out of the house because wi believe say in do begin man bizness. When munchichi left the house hawa cried uncontrollably. We took her into the house as she said munchichi’s name over and over, tearing with snot streaming down her cheeks.

As it would happen munchichi on her exist would get into a fight with her biological mother…she would end up slapping her mother (wetin na abomination? Look am pack). My aunt strolls into the house and announces that munchichi had just slap her mother. Hawa turns and looks at her mid crying and asks “mama munchichi slap im mama”? when it was confirmed with a nod of yes, hawanatu instantaneously stopped crying and put her hand to her mouth in astonishment of the news. The next day she was the first to announce what munchi had done to everyone who entered the house, she even added a demonstration, showing how munchichi slapped her mother by pretending to slap herself.

(chillin with the coolest grandma in the world)

More Evidence…
When Hawa was only about one she was frightened by the call to prayer from the mosque. Now, everytime she hears it she says “mama den don call prayer” and then hawa announces “we di cam go pray..ah day go look for me mafaylay (scarf). And yesterday she blew me away cause after the call to prayer she goes..mama ah day cam go ol alwala(abulation)”. Finally the other day we let her go to the mosque. She followed the prayer to the T and as we came home she said mama allahuakbar

(on her 2nd b-day)

Amongst other things she can carry on phone conversations, and she possibly has the biggest library of names a child has every learnt. My favorite so far is that a couple months ago as i came home with a guy friend, who i had previously not introduced to her. She said “aunty vickie im papa don cam”…lol

But last night took the cake. She spots the security guard walking to the back of the house and before he even has a chance to say hello. She goes “musa udat barb u”. No one else had even noticed that musa the guard had had a hair cut.

So starting next week she will continue nursery 2 at the bilingual school in murray town. If there was a way to test her IQ i’m sure it would be ridiculously high

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