Anfia 

It is a story in 2011. She was always sleeping in my class because computer was too boring to her. And my teaching way wouldn’t have been very exciting to some students in Primary-4, so I couldn’t complain to her sleeping before my very eyes. Basically I don’t really care about those who sleep in class because it doesn’t bather the class, but it is they that suffer. On the other hand, I never allow them to come late, talk to others, do any deeds that destroy “order” in class because others suffer from one’s laziness or selfishness. For I should teach them not only ICT but social behavior.

She is one of those who were brought to school behind age unfortunately and was “too old” to start in kindergarten, so she started in P-3 without basic education. With good imagination, you can see how hard her situation could be. She didn’t know how to count numbers, how to spell letters, and needless to say she couldn’t talk in sign language, either. Parents don’t know sign language so children must learn it at school. This is the typical case of deaf children who suffer from domestic discrimination. Although she is “innocent”, she has to shoulder such burden at the beginning of life.

Generally speaking, deaf people are not good at memorizing words because of the lack of hearing sense. When we memorize words, we rely on the “sound” to a great degree, though we’re not aware of it. Therefore they easily make mistakes on spelling their names, for example Drag becomes “Darg” and Network does “Netword”, which won’t happen to us. And what’s interesting is that some students can write “Mirror writing”. This ability seems to be developed as a by-product when teachers write letters in the air to teach how to write letters, which is Mirror writing from the view of students. And many students get confused with “b” and “d”, and face a wide variety of obstacles caused by deafness. That’s why MoidiB might use the capital “B”?! In passing, in authentic Ghanaian English, you must pronounce Mosque as “Moques”, ask as “aks”, Desktop as “Dekstop”, and “Cucumber” as “cuCumber”, which has nothing to do with deafness and this topic, though. Anyway her name is “Anfia” who has a beautiful and innocent smile with burdens in her shoulder.

As I mentioned above, I educate “order” in class. There was a naught boy called Abu Basheru in P-4. Although he is actually the leader of the class, his way to lead the class was very bossy more like “dictator”, and he didn’t have any sense of compassion, kindness, sympathy, like “slave owner”. There are more important to life than ability. If you are a real strong man, you know how to protect weak ones. If you exploit others with the help of power, money, weapons, or in the name of Peace, Equality, Fraternity, or God, it is just hypocrisy. In Karate, which is a Japanese martial art, there is a saying: “Karate ni Sente nashi.” – There is no first attack in Karate. You train, train and train yourself in Karate, but you don’t use it, this is the ideal of Karate. Namely to protect yourself or someone important, you have to have power; without any weapon, you cannot protect anyone. This is the real strong person, but Abu Basheru was misusing his power. So I kicked him out from my class in the rest of the 3^rd term in June in order to give him a chance to think about “real man”.

And surprisingly enough, just before the exam, Anfia came to me and begged for him to let him take the exam. She was so sympathized with his situation to take the action. I was so touched by her Coeur (heart), but I rejected it for the sake of his change. She taught me what real kindness was. In truth, her real name is “Anifa” but she spells Anfia, swapping “f” and “i” due to deafness. Yet my teacher who taught me “real man” was “Anfia”, who is so kind, compassionated and sympathetic.