On 7 April, I met with Umutoni. Her
siblings gathered around the kitchen table, and were excited to participate in
the lesson. I presented the list of words again, because some of the children weren’t
present last week: head (umutwe); arm (ukuboko); hand (ikiganza); eye (ijisho);
leg (ukugulu); foot (ikirenge); hair (umusatsi); nose (izuru); mouth (umunwa);
ear (ugutwi); thumb (igikumwe); cheek (itama); finger (urutokwe); knee (ivi);
neck (ijosi); wrist (ubujana); elbow (inkokola); and ankle (ubugombambali). We
did the same kind of practice activity, and when it came time to evaluate
Umutoni’s comprehention, I would let only her answer, while the other children
stayed quiet. She remembered all of the words but one: ugutwi. I used this gap
in her knowledge to present a few new words: the names for one’s fingers.
(Thumb, index-finger, middle-finger, ring-finger, pinky.) The Kinyarwandan word
pinky means the color pink in English;
this made everyone laugh. Umutoni was having trouble with these new words. I
traced my hand out on a sheet of paper and labeled each finger. I had her do
the same. By the end of the lesson, she had learned the name of three of the
fingers.
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