Abdul

In the early 90s I conducted research in and around Freetown, and was greatly aided by a research assistant, Maligie, who at the time had a son aged 8, Abdul. Now aged 19, Abdul will be staying with me for awhile, enrolled in a local private high school here in Ghana, with some additional after-school professional tutoring in English literature and grammar. Abdul's hoping to do well enough on exams next year to qualify for university.



We chat each evening over dinner about something learned in class. I learned a new word, enthalpy. I'm sure you all already knew what that was.

The proportion of our evening meals devoted to rice has now greatly increased. Sierra Leone citizens consume more rice per person than any other in Africa.

We've decided that eggs every morning for breakfast is probably not a good idea. Now experimenting with millet porrige and honey coated oats with milk.



Abdul, Moses, and I had an interesting discussion about tastes in music this evening. The topic was "objectification of women in modern lyrics". I showed them how to use the Internet to find lyrics to popular songs. We reviewed one they said was among their favorites, 50 Cent's Candy Shop. I did not interpret it for them, and I do not think they quite caught what Mr. Cent was talking about...

Parenting advice appreciated...