When Afi comes of age in their small town of Ho, Aunty delivers a proposal too attractive to refuse: Afi should marry her son Eli, who is entangled with a Liberian woman the family deeply dislikes. That is, until their local benefactor, Aunty Faustina Ganyo (“Aunty” for short), puts them up in one of her houses, and even gives Afi’s mother a job at her flour distribution depot. Having no claim to either their house or anything inside of it, they find themselves at the mercy of a tyrannical uncle, moving into the house of his three wives and 11 children. The book asks a fundamental question that women are asked, and must ask themselves all over the world, but in a decidedly West African context: How can you take care of your family and community obligations, and at the same time take care of yourself?įor Afi Tekple, the naive young protagonist thrust into a ridiculously untenable situation, the answer becomes clearer the more she finds her voice and courageously honors it.Īfi and her mother have been thrust into near-poverty after her father’s untimely death. “His Only Wife,” Peace Adzo Medie’s debut novel, is a deeply engrossing chronicle of contemporary Ghanaian womanhood: its challenges, opportunities and, perhaps most strikingly for Western audiences, its absurdity.
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The legendary wizard continued to gaze out of the window, towards the palace gardens which were just beginning to bud. Apart from those of Bayaz, down at the foot of the table. “One issue before we begin,” he said.Īll eyes turned towards him. “But in the end, no man can defeat his own bladder.”Īs the youngest in the room by some thirty years, Orso ranked his bladder among his least interesting organs. “One can win a thousand battles.” Lord Marshal Brint worried at that lady’s ring on his little finger, gazing into the middle distance as though at an opposing army. “Out with his bladder.” There was a chorus of groans. “Where’s the surveyor general?” someone asked, nodding at an empty chair. The moment he sat they began to drag out their own chairs, wincing as old backs bent, grunting as old arses settled on hard wood, grumbling as old knees were eased under the tottering heaps of paper on the table. But his Closed Council had no doubt heard all that before. The burden of power, the weight of a crown. “Damn thing chafes rather.” He rubbed at the sore spots it had left above his temples. “I hope no one minds if we dispense with this for now?” Orso tossed his circlet down, gold twinkling in a dusty shaft of spring sunlight as it spun around and around. Developing the skills of written expression.Teaching and practicing reading comprehension strategies.Building phonetic understanding in order to bolster decoding and encoding skills.The language arts program in third grade focuses on three main components: SBP students see themselves as capable individuals who love learning, feel confident about school, believe they are going to be successful, and are optimistic about their future. The goal of the Sally Borden Program is to build successful, lifelong learners. SBP students are also integrated with students in their larger grade through subjects such as art, music, and physical education, as well as recess, field trips, flex and activity periods, and special events. This allows faculty to personalize their instruction for what each student needs, using programs such as Orton-Gillingham, Schools Attuned, and Project Read. Small class sizes are a hallmark of the program, with no more than eight SBP students per grade. They are very capable, but they need a different type of environment and instruction to thrive. SBP students demonstrate average to superior cognitive abilities, but may have difficulty with reading, spelling, math, written expression, and organizational and/or study skills. Grounded in the firm conviction that each child learns differently - that one size does not fit all - the Sally Borden Program reflects Friends Academy’s deeply rooted belief in the need to appropriately support each child to succeed in school. |