The Rich Daughter Who Cannot Spell
Fatou was by no means unintelligent. She hardly spells a word correctly. She could tell you the capital cities of ten countries in Africa, and she could give you the date The Gambia gained its independence from Great Britain. She knows quite a lot about history.
But when it came to spelling, Fatou was not very good. Most people know that the word ″boy″ is spelled as B-O-Y- but not Fatou. And most people can spell simple words like a table (which, as you know, is spelled as t-a-b-l-e) - but not Fatou. If you ask Fatou any question which had anything to do with spelling she would turn pale and begin to stammer.
‘Now, Fatou,’ said Mrs. Sanyang. ‘Can you spell the word book’? Fatou turned red. After a while, she said ‘b-u-u-k, buuk!’ she responded. Then, when everyone began to murmur, she quickly suggested ‘kub’ No, ‘bub’. That’s it -- ‘bub’.
‘Oh, Fatou!’ Exclaimed Mrs. Sanyang, her English teacher in exasperation. ‘Surely, you can spell a simple word like that by now!’ But Fatou could not.
And no matter how hard she tried (and she tried very hard to spell) she still found it impossible.
Her father gave her extra lessons. Her mom too, who is a teacher, gave her special books, and when neither of these worked; they asked for a visit from the honorable Nana Grey-Johnson who knew a great deal about people who could not spell.
He gave Fatou some list of words, and in all of them, she scored 0 out of 100. This was the worst score honorable Nana Grey-Johnson had ever seen in his career as an author. He went away shaking his head in dismay.
‘Fatou is far too impossible,’ he said. ‘I’m sorry to have to say this, but it’s the whole truth. Fatou is the exact definition of a dyslexic. I think she is having difficulty with spelling. She will never make it. Never!’
Her parents were sad to hear this said, but they knew that it was true. Kids of her age in primary school could spell over 2000 words. Some could even challenge senior graders and represent their school in competitions. But some people will never be able to spell, write, or read.
Fatou was one of those. Not being able to spell words has its disadvantages. When Fatou went to the market to buy something, she had to hope that she said the right word. Sometimes she says the wrong word and the vendors will curiously look at her. Sometimes she can’t even remember the word and the vendors would wonder what was wrong with a girl of her age who couldn’t even spell a word. Poor Fatou!
She felt so upset when this happened, and yet, she knew it was not her fault. ‘English is a borrowed language,’ she said. After all, even those who always send her to the market knew she would forget what she was told. ‘Buy me OMO’, her mother said.
‘O-M-O, OMO. I repeat three times,’ emphasized her mother
Fatou nodded her head and went to the market and bought very ripe Júr mangoes. She had already eaten the mangoes before she even arrived home. The worst part of all was the assignment and homework. Fatou managed to finish most of her homework quite hurriedly, but the English part of it seemed to take weeks or sometimes months. And at the end of all those weeks of effort, everything would be incorrect -- everything!
One day, Fatou was helping her mom in the kitchen while doing her homework. She was even writing the wrong words her mother had spelled. Suddenly, they heard the voice of a stranger at the gate.
‘Assalamu Alaikum. I am begging for alms!’ the voice called out. Fatou knew at once that her rich parents would drive the person away and would never give alms to the poor. She had to escape through the back door to help out the beggar.
‘Take this loaf of bread and money. Although, it is my breakfast and lunch for school’, she said calmly.
‘Thank you very much, Fatou!’, said the beggar. ‘I have a gift for you. Take this pen and write with it when going to bed every night. Put it under your bed every night and you will see a big difference in your life,’ said the poor old beggar.
The beggar was a genie who had come to grant her wishes for having a kind heart. Now you would have thought that a pen would be the answer to Fatou’s problems, but this was not so. Her parents bought her the most expensive pens in the world but she had never succeeded. Fatou was not sure about what the beggar told her because her wealthy parents warned her not to accept gifts from strangers. Still, with a magic pen in her hand, it made no difference at all. When she took the pen to school the following day and wrote with it, she even got miserable for not being able to spell the word ‘furniture’.
But Fatou forgot that she must put the pen under her bed every night as instructed by the beggar. Does she remember that? Well, Mrs. Sanyang, their English teacher, gave the class a word puzzle to solve.
The instruction written on the chalkboard said (Complete the following word puzzle by adding the missing words:
- o -ry (lorry), a-r-l-ne (airplane), and the list goes on.
What a question? Poor Fatou had no idea where to start. She also had no idea why anybody would want to know the answer to a question like that.
She wrote ″xorry″ in the place of a lorry, and ″earplane″ in the place of an airplane. She tried writing the words with her magic pen but got it wrong -- very wrong!
But the beggar spiritually appeared to her in the class and said; ‘Oh, Fatou. Put the pen under your bed every night,’ she said.
Fatou was almost frightened but nobody heard the voice or saw the spirit of the beggar except her. With a sigh of relief, Fatou went home straight and went upstairs to bed. She entered her room and put the pen under her bed. Just a few minutes later while she was fast asleep, something very strange happened. The beggar appeared in her dream and taught her some words. They practiced together long enough before Fatou could realize it was already morning and time for school. Would Fatou tell her dream to anyone?
