Sandra didn’t know what to make of us when we first arrived at her grandparents house. In fact for the first few days, we only saw her peeking out from behind the legs of one of her Aunts or Uncles. As is the case of most 5-year olds, curiosity began to get the better of her.
Shortly after we had arrived home on Tuesday evening, Sandra came to our door by herself. She inched her way along the wall, until she was standing at the end of Andie’s bed. We took turns asking her questions. If we were lucky, Sandra might give us a one word answer before starting to giggle. Slowly, I pulled out my camera and started to take her picture. At first she looked at me with trepidation, but before the second click, she’d turned to the camera with a big, cheeky, grin. Showing her the pictures of herself, was all it took to win her friendship. From that night on, she was our friend and would join us and her grandfather in the sitting room most evenings.
When Sandra would join us in the sitting room, her grandfather would quiz her on her sums or her spelling. One evening, as Andie and I sat in the sitting room waiting for dinner, she took turns braiding/plaiting our hair, before she started to use each of our hands to practice her sums. We then started to quiz her on her spelling and sums. What a little smarty she was.
Near the end of the week, Emmanuel and Mary told us the story of Sandra moving in with them. They had not planned on raising their granddaughter, she chose them. After Mary retired, a friend of hers convinced her to start teaching again, so she works at a school near their home. On one of her trips to visit her grandparents, Sandra went with Mary to Mary’s school. Sandra fell in love with the school and decided that she couldn’t possibly go back to the school in her village. Sandra loved one of the teachers that she met, and loved the swing set. After that, Sandra went about convincing the family she couldn’t possibly go back to her village school. She simply could not learn at a school that didn’t have the new beloved teacher. And she couldn’t learn at a school without a swing set. Her parents were reluctant to leave her. They didn’t want to feel that they were abandoning her, or that they were pawning her off. But Sandra was adamant. In an effort to relieve some of her parents pain when they were leaving, instead of saying bye to mum and dad, she said “Bye man and lady”.
Emmanuel and Mary also told us that Sandra refuses to call them Agogos because they aren’t grandparents by Sandra’s definition. According to her, Agogos are old and walk with canes.
One night, Andie and I were letting Sandra and Jacqueline listen to our iPod’s. Andie was playing Aretha Franklin’s “Respect” when Sandra starts singing along. We almost peed on ourselves laughing as she busted out with “re -re -re” and “just a little bit”.
A few nights later Andie pulled out her video camera and iPod in an effort to capture Sandra’s singing. Sandra of course had other ideas. She soon realised that Andie could turn the display around so that Sandra could see herself as she was being recorded. And at that moment, Sandra took over. She made sure the light was on her just right, she practiced a variety of looks, told Andie what to film and for how long.
When we were leaving Sandra was asking when we were coming back. She didn’t want us to leave her house. And we didn’t want to leave her house either. The evenings aren’t quite the same without Sandra around.
