“When our ancestors saw the first white they thought they were looking at ghosts or maybe some people who had just fallen into bad luck. Dogs sat on their tails and opened their jaws to await the spectacle. The dogs thought they were in for treat. Maybe these white people could jump backwards or somersault over trees. Maybe they had some spare food. Dogs always hope for that.”
The ancestors are stunned by the whiteness for they are not accustomed to it, and it is dissimilar from their colors. Dog’s response accentuates the extent to which the white people elicit astonishment due to their color. The whites are categorically different; hence, it would unmanageable for both humans and animals to overlook their peculiarity. Color is a differentiating feature which extricates individuals.
“I did not realize what a big impact the school had on my life until it closed. My sense of time was governed by the school year-when the term began, when it ended, the holidays between. Now that we had been set free had all this times on our hands. When we woke we no longer felt the brooms on our backsides or our mums shouting.”
The closure of school alters Matilda’s outlook on time. She feels that time is stagnant, for she does not expend it in schooling undertakings which she was accustomed to prior to the civil war. Her association of time and the school year indicates that she is nostalgic of the school days which have been upset by the war. Obviously, attending school made her to appreciate that time was motional.
“I want you to understand something. I am no teacher, but I will do my best. That’s my promise to you children. I believe, with your parents’ help, we can make a difference to our lives.”
Mr. Watts’s deficiency of teaching aptitudes does not deter him from endeavoring to advance the children’s lives. He manifests noteworthy leadership abilities for embracing the teaching obligation because of the prevailing condition of war which has interrupted the children’s schooling. His inclination to aid the children’s learning exposes his graciousness.
