Many Languages

The sun felt so hot Keisha thought she might melt like the chocolate she left in the jeep yesterday. "How much farther to the market?" she asked Fatmata. "Not far!" answered her new friend.Keisha had met Fatmata that morning, her first day at her new school. Keisha's father had taken a nursing position at the hospital in Mattru Jong, a town in Sierra Leone, West Africa. The family had moved to Mattru from New York the week before. Keisha hadn't had time to explore, so Fatmata offered to show her around. When they reached the marketplace, Keisha was amazed. Women wearing colorful fabric around their heads and hips were selling peppers, cassava, balls of groundnut paste, rice, dried fish, mangoes, and papayas. The food sat in bowls on wooden tables or on fabric spread on the dirt. It didn't look or sound anything like grocery stores back home."What language are they speaking?" Keisha asked. "Mostly Krio," said Fatmata. "It's our trading language. Some are speaking Mende, the tribal langu