If You Give a Rat a Biscuit

Post by Kevin

After class had finished one day, my students were asking me questions that I’m all too familiar with here: “Mr. Flaute, can you buy me lunch?” “Mr. Flaute, can you give me a Le 1000?” “Mr. Flaute, will you teach me how to use your computer?”  This is almost a constant struggle here with people, trying to explain to them that just because I’m Caucasian does not mean that I have money to hand out.  So with my students I tried to take a different approach as to how children in the states learn why you can’t always give people things.  In doing so, I had to adapt If You Give a Mouse a Cookie for Sierra Leone.  Here is If You Give a Rat a Biscuit:

If you give a rat a biscuit, he’s going to ask for a glass of water.  

The Krio word for anything that is rodent-like that has a bare tail is called a rat.  They have both rats and mice here, but they call them all rats. 

Because they speak British English here, cookies don’t really exist.  Anything that has flour and is baked into a small round or square piece of food is called a biscuit. 

The only way to get milk is if you mix milk powder with some water, therefore it’s only common for small children to drink milk.  The go-to drink here is always water because it’s almost always free.

If you give a rat a glass of water, he’s going to ask for a chair to sit in.

I couldn’t remember the rest of the story, so I improvised the rest.  If you can remember the rest of the story, feel free to post in the comments!

If you give a rat a chair, he’s going to ask for a stool to rest his feet.

If you give a rat a stool, he’s going to ask for a blanket.

If you give a rat a blanket, he’s going to ask for a pillow.

If you give a rat a pillow, he’s going to ask to stay the night.

If you give a rat a place to sleep, he’s going to ask where he can start keeping his things.

As senior secondary students, do you understand why I cannot give you Le1000?

They told me they understood, but that never stopped them from asking me the next day.