About a Boy

His name is Adam. That’s what others call him.
For his age, he’s very petite.
He does not like to talk.
He comes and goes as he please.
Despite being the smallest and quietest, he stood out from the crowd.

I’ve been participating in Sudanese Australia Integrated Learning (SAIL) for the past 4 months. Even since I was there, I was placed with another group of tutors and students. Today, while one of the students was colouring, Adam stood beside us. I invited him to join us and handed him some colour pencils. After he had finish colouring, he started tracing the picture on the other side. Shortly, he ran away, playing the piano and came back with “Connect Four”. I played with him with the assumption that he did not know the rules but I was wrong. For the first few rounds, I let him win. However, I decided to challenge him. And he cheated! He refused to let me put in places he knew he can’t win and he removed all the tokens I have placed. He disappeared and came back with “Guess who” and later, “Snake and ladders”. Throughout the whole time, he was communicating with body language. But playing “guess who” forced him to speak up. The first sentence he spoke, “Is yours a girl?” After playing for some time, I urged him to do some work. After a long negotiation, we settled on ABC. Still, he refused to speak and it was hard to know if he knew the work. It took me quite some time to make him read a loud A to Z albeit whispering to himself.

It was nearly 12 noon. Lunch time! Adam said he wanted to play outside. To my horror, despite my warning, for the second time, I found him attempting to climb the tree which 2 older students were on. He climbed onto the bricks below the branches and reached out for them. I ran up and pulled him off the tree. Thank goodness he’s not too heavy. I can’t imagine what will happen if he fell off the tree. The fence under the tree was a little pointed and there were concrete slabs and bricks under it! They should remove them!

Sam, one of the coordinators, asked if I would mind taking Adam as my student. I was delighted. Yes, I would love to! We had an agreement that Adam will be in the Junior room until I’m back.

Yippee! I have a student. He is undeniably adorable!
I cant wait to be back next year :)