Groveland Twp.-On May 29, Mariama Conteh-Elliott, along with her classmates from Oakland Community College, will receive associate’s degrees during commencement exercises.
And, like many other graduates, she anticipates seeking a four-year-degree coupled with a laundry list of plans ranging from careers to boyfriends to summer jobs. While the 24-year-old’s aspirations mirror those of other young adults’her path to a college diploma and the halls of OCC is far from traditional.
In 1999, rebel soldiers from Mariama’s home in the West African country of Sierra Leone severed her left hand just above the wrist with a pick axe. Mariama’s mother completed the cut with a piece of broken glass. On her right arm, a ragged scar exists where an attempt to sever the other hand failed. Her knee was broken after she eventually fled the rebels.
Although difficult to understand, rebel logic reports from the country say the brutal assaults were to punish people for voting, the aftermath of a 1996 campaign using the slogan, ‘Let’s put our hands together to create a new future.?
In 2000, six Sierra Leonean children, including Mariama, then 14, all victims of the rebel butchery, came to the United States thanks to an organization called Gift of Limbs, a group comprised of Staten Island Rotary clubs and a Brooklyn Rotary Club and Staten Island University Hospital, who donated prosthetic limbs.
The group of children, which were living in a Sierra Leone camp in Freetown, were sponsored in part by the Friends of Sierra Leone, whose members are former Peace Corps volunteers in the West Africa nation.
The children were part of a humanitarian effort to bring awareness of their plight.
Township residents Clayton and Deannie Elliott were contacted and flew their own small plane out to Staten Island to meet the six Sierra Leonean children.
‘Mariama was the oldest of all the kids,? said Deannie. ‘I kind of think she thought she was too old to be adopted. Then we had her come to Ortonville for two weeks to see how we and she would adapt…and we got along great.?
When she first arrived in Ortonville, she spoke very little since the language was unfamiliar to her and nightmares were frequent, says Deannie.
Weighing about 87 pounds, she was shy and rail-thin, say the reports. She had learned Krio, an English-based Creole, spoken by the descendants of freed Jamaican slaves who settled in the Freetown area. The rather unique dialect spoken by about 95 percent of Sierra Leonean contains no ‘r? sound in the language.
‘Flash cards,? said Mariama, who attended Waterford Adult Education before taking classes at OCC.
‘That’s how I learned English’it’s very difficult. When I started I could not write a sentence? I studied hard for four years to pass the high school proficiency test, then moved on to college.?
Calculus, political science, writing, recalls Mariama were all part of the daily routine, sometimes more than seven hours of study.
‘When Mariama first joined my English as a Second Language classes, she was very quiet and shy,? said Jennifer Craft, an OCC instructor.
‘Fortunately, the classes she was in were small and the students were very kind. Over time, she became more comfortable, both in using English and in being around the other students.?
‘I also remember that an assignment of reading aloud one of the poems from T.S. Eliot’s Old Possum’s Book of Practical Cats really brought her out of her shell as she discovered the musical Cats. She was a hardworking student who came to us with very little language skill and who, as an adult, had to learn the fine motor skills associated with handwriting, but she never complained.?
‘She has affected me and given me a new way to think about life and to be thankful for all that I have. I will share her story with my daughter (who is now 3-years-old) as she gets older. I respect Mariama more than I respect the vast majority of people, though it will probably embarrass her to hear that. She amazes me, and thinking of her always makes me smile.?
In 2010 Mariama anticipates becoming an American citizen as she very eloquently repeats some of the 30 or so questions required for the test.
‘I know what a corrupt government is,? said Mariama. ‘I come from a country at war where if you get sick or disagree, you die. No matter what happens, you can always start a new life.?
Mariama says she hopes to return to visit her family who still live in Freetown, and would like to teach them to write.
‘Of course I’ll travel with her,? laughs Deannie.
‘It’s still a very dangerous place to visit.?