Jean Badou
Professor: Sabatino Mangini Eng 100 Assignment#1: Draft 2 ( Hiraeth Narrative) May 7, 2017 My Best Memories from Benin My Home Country Outside my house, we had a big yard with mango trees, papaya trees, orange trees,a small shed, a big bathroom(wc), a water well and an avocado tree. My four friends were outside waiting for me -- Modeste, Romanus,Martial, and Candide..Modeste wanted to play a game of “cache-cache,” which was like hide-and-seek. In this game, one person would close his eyes with a shirt or other clothing and the others would hide in different places, then that person would say to them “ are you ready?” and everybody else would say “yes!”. Then he would take the cloth off his eyes and try to find everybody with the cloth in his hand. When he found one person, he would throw the cloth on him, then both would try to find the rest, until they found the last one, and then the game was over. During the game, if the person with the cloth threw it on you and it didn’t reach you, then he would run or race behind you and throw it on you to catch you. If he did, then both would try to find others. It was a joy to play this game. On that particular day, at first, I was too sad to play when Modeste said, “Come on, Jean. Let’s play cache-cache.” I was too sad and I knew I would be distracted, but then Modeste insisted again and again. As I remembered the joy of the game, I finally said yes. I couldn’t help thinking that this would be the last time I played this game with my friends. This realization was probably the main reason I was the last person to go outside that day. Perhaps I was trying to avoid the inevitable. The following week I would leave Benin, my home country. That meant I would leave all my friends. I knew I would never be with them anytime soon, and I knew I was beginning another life in United States, especially in Pennsylvania, where my father was working hard. I would have to start all over with new friends, and I knew things would never be the same. I was the youngest in our group of friends; Romanus was the oldest among us, then Martial followed, then Modeste and Candide. We all grew up together in the same area called “ Fifonsi.” We went to the same school, “ Cs Les Genis De Tankpe.” and “ Ceg Houeto”. We used to do our homework, go to church and play some games like soccer, hide-and-seek, racing, biking, and ludo together. We were like brothers, family and best-friends, which made us closer. The week before I left my country, in the morning by 9 am, we were all together under the big mango tree, which had green and yellow flowers with some beautiful mangoes that were ready to eat. We put some chairs made with wood, painted in white, under the tree. We all sat on the chairs in a circle talking about what we were going to do during our vacation from school. Then we started talking about the games we had played, reminding each other. Modeste asked me, “Do you remember when we were playing cache-cache and you went to hide behind the mango tree, and I was far away looking at you but didn’t say anything at first. Then I screamed and said “here he is”. At that moment you wanted to run away when a mango fell down from the tree and I left you and ran to get the mango?” Then I said, “Do you remember when you fell down next to the avocado tree, when we were chasing you, Martial?” “Do you remember when Modeste and Romanus found you and you couldn’t run away?” Martial said. When I would hide successfully and my friends couldn’t find me, I would feel on top of the world. If my friends found me, then I would run. They would race after me to catch me. If they did, the game was over. Even so, we laughed a lot. If I was sad, my friends would take me out of my comfort zone. Even if I was sad before, the game would bring joy and distract me from my sadness. Now it was time for the game Modeste wanted to play. Everybody sat in my yard. They asked me to be the person who would go hide first, and at first I said no. But they pushed me until I said yes. I went to hide behind the water well constructed with brown brick, which had a long multicolor rope, and inside were some lines where people could put their feet when digging. Outside the well was a big brick on which someone who couldn’t reach the rope stood. They couldn’t image I could hide there, so they were unable to find me. After I got out, they tried to catch me. Then I ran, and they were behind me racing to catch me. My friend Martial threw a shirt and it caught me, so the game was over. The same day by 2 pm, when we weren’t playing games, we were forced to do homework. We all would meet in a group and work on the assignment our teacher gave us in school. Everybody went over the instructions. The moment one person would not read his homework and have no idea about what was going on, he would come sit between us. We had to talk to him, so next time, he would learn from his mistake. Because when one person didn’t do his homework, it was harder for us to work within a given time. At that moment, that person would put us behind, and we would have to read everything and make sure he understood the topic before we continued with our work. During the studying, everyone among us had to participate by going to the board and showing his answer. By the time one was writing, the rest of the group would be doing their own work to make sure the person on the board was right. After all, we discussed the parts that were wrong and fixed them together. Then everyone could write the answers in his note book or on his assignment sheet. We also used to play soccer with another team from 5 to 7:30 pm, and we had our team of twelve. The team name was “ La gloire” which means in English”The glory”. We used to wear a white uniform because the white meant for us “clear”. Clear in the sense that, if we went on the field, we would clear everything and leave a good mark. The team members were Modeste, Romanus, Candide, Zayed, Abel, Sidney, Alphonse, Ghislain, Audrey, Rachidi, Emmanuel, Wahab and me. I was usually at the goal. It was rare for me to be in front when we faced another team. Romanus was at the defense because he was strong and good in defense. Modeste, Martial and Candide were the ones who attacked. I remember the last day we played with another team was a week before I left my country. That day, I was saying to myself, “I hope this is not going to be my last game with my friends before I leave the country”. I sat on the goal when Candide said, “ Jean, are you ready for this game?” I said, “yes”. We were going to win this one. This day was for us. Then, I called all the members of the team, and I told them, “Let’s make this day unforgettable”. Romanus said, “Count on me, I’m the one in front of you and no one will put the ball in our goal”. Then the rest said, “We are together, so you will be good here”. I said, “No worries, let’s pray before we start”. When we started the game, no team between us put a ball in the adverse goal for the first forty five minutes. When we went on break, we changed our plan. Modeste took Candide’s place, and we replaced Martial with Zayed, one of our team members who played defense too. At this moment, everything started to go well in our favor. Modeste score one goal in the last ten minutes. At the end of the game, our team won. We scored one goal and the other team had zero. At the end, we all met in front of our goal and took some pictures. In one picture we all put Modeste on top. I was in the middle of the goal, Candide and Martial were in my left hand side, Romanus and Zayed were in my Right hand side and the others in front of us and all of us created a circle and put Modeste on top. I felt good at the end of this day because I knew that even if I couldn’t go back to this day anymore, I had very good memories. If I went back to visit my friends, we would talk about that day. Even so, if I go back to that place, now, we’re all grown up. We can’t do homework together anymore; we can’t play those game anymore.
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