NTM Online: Abeedou's Secret

			Contents: Who are those men? You brought a hippo? Save me? From what? Hiding in the hut Their secret is out! Activities About the story Teacher's version
	Abeedou's Secret by Dena McMaster

Part Two: You brought a hippo?

That first night the two men stayed in Abeedou's Father's house. They slept on a straw mat on the floor. In the morning, they started to build a hut of their own in another part of the village.

All of the men of the village came to help build the hut. They used bricks made of mud. Then they gathered straw to make a roof. In three days the hut was finished.

Abeedou and his friends often walked by the strangers' hut. They wanted to find out how these men from "outside" lived. They wanted to know how they were different from the men of Bajula. Most of all they wanted to hear God's Word. And they wanted to know the Truth. They eagerly waited for the day that the men would start teaching God's Word.

Abeedou and his friends thought the strangers were very funny. They would walk through the village and point at a tree and say, "Mung mu minti?" (In Abeedou's language that means, "What is it?") They kept pointing at different things and asking, "Mung mu minti, mung mu minti?" They talked like babies.

Abeedou
  Ah-bee-doo
Bajula
  Bah-joo-lah
Malinké
  Mah-lin-kay

One of the men asked Abeedou, "Name you what?" Abeedou laughed and laughed. "My name is Abeedou," he said. Only in his language it is, "N toxo Abeedou."

Abeedou's Father told them that the men were trying to learn the Malinké language so that they could teach God's Truth to the people in their own language. Abeedou thought that was a very good idea. Very few of the people spoke French and no one spoke English. Therefore, if they wanted the people to really understand God's truth, they would need to teach them in Malinké.

The two men went to the fields and helped them plant.

Every day the two men visited with the villagers. They ate with them. They went to the fields and helped them plant rice and peanuts. The men worked very hard. All day every day they kept asking questions and trying to learn the Malinké language.

Abeedou waited and waited. Finally, one day he asked, "Aren't you going to teach us God's Word? I really want to know what God has to say to us."

One of the men replied, "We cannot start teaching until we know the way you talk and the way you think very well. We want to make sure you understand God's message for you."

"But if you wait very long Grandmother will die," Abeedou said. "She will never hear God's Word. She will not know if God is right or the spirits are right!" Abeedou cried.

"Well then, Abeedou, you must help us to learn the language quickly," the man replied.

From that day on, Abeedou worked with the two strangers every day. He helped them to learn the Malinké language. He did not laugh when they made silly mistakes. Sometimes it was very hard not to laugh.

One day one of the men came and said, "My name is Rick. In Malinké you say Iriki. I have brought you some malo." Abeedou looked all around. He didn't see a malo. You see, in Malinké, malo with a low "o" means hippopotamus. Iriki meant to say malo with a high "o." That means rice. The sounds in the words are the same, but one goes up on the end and the other goes down.

To Abeedou, they sounded very different, but Iriki had a hard time telling the difference. Iriki would often tell Abeedou's mother that the hippopotamus tasted very good. His mother would smile and say, "Thank you."

Try saying it yourself. Say "malo" (mah-lo) like a question: "malo?" That's how you would say "rice" in Malinké. Now say it like you were just saying a word at the end of a sentence: "malo." That's how you would say "hippo" in Malinké.

Bit by bit, Iriki and his friend, whose Malinké name was Paulu, learned the Malinké language. Paulu wrote everything down on a piece of paper. Abeedou just thought it looked like hen scratching.

Day after day went by. Still the men just studied the language. Abeedou began to worry. He thought Grandmother would die and would never get to hear God's Word.

One day Paulu came to Abeedou and said ...

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