We've taken the chance to visit some of these classes with him in the last few weeks. It's been interesting to listen in and participate in these classroom settings. At the end of each class our teacher gives the class the opportunity to ask us questions. It's always a nail bitting experience, but it's fun to finally be putting our hours of study to the test. The other day, one of the students asked why we wanted to learn Pulaar. It was a perfect chance to explain our desire to help the Tukolor people. One young man asked if we learned anything during class. Bryan was able to read the math story problem that was written on the board and the entire class was amazed. Another man said that although he was able to speak Pulaar, he wasn't able to read it as well as we could, even though we are not yet able to speak very well. That's the heart of most of these students, they desire to read and write in their own language.
We are looking forward to getting to know some of these people through our language learning efforts. Real break throughs take no less that complete immersion in real life situations. This is where the rubber meets the road and effort leads to progress.
