Random Thoughts from the Week...

August 1, 2010

Started learning Bissa, my local language, this week. I don’t know my exact site yet, but Bissa is widely spoken in the center-east of the country. Here’s a good map with the regional languages labeled. http://www.ethnologue.com/maps/bfa_eth.jpg
I’ll be somewhere that region. Bissa’s very different, but it might be easier than French. There’s only 3 tenses (present, past, and future). And from what I can tell now, you don’t conjugate verbs at all. Just use the right pronoun and the verb always stays the same.

Rain here defines everything! Most of the time, it’s a sweet release from the intense heat. Other times, it’s this frustrating halt to everything! No one goes out. The other morning, my host family seemed so confused that I was leaving on time for class despite the pouring rains (and subsequent flooded roads I had to bike through). I was one of the first people there.

So most of the time, I feel like Bambi trying to learn how to walk. I usually don’t know what I’m supposed to do or what’s going on. Someone will hand me a piece of fruit and I’ll be thinking, “I have absolutely no idea what to do with this or how to eat it.” Weata (I have no idea how to spell it) is this delicious sweet and sour fruit. It tastes like Sour Patch Kids. But the first time I had one, all the kids laughed at me as I ate it. I couldn’t figure out how to open it. And then I tried to eat the pit. It makes delicious juice though. And I don’t know why it’s funny, but apparently me and Lindsay trying to wash our laundry is hysterical. I feel like I’m doing it right, it’s all soapy, but apparently I’m not doing it right. Sometime I just talk and everyone laughs. Last night, we went to get a soda before dinner with our family. I said “N’importe qui” instead of “N’importe quoi” (It doesn’t matter). Everyone thought it was hysterical. Come on, I was only one letter off, close enough. I wonder if “N’importe qui” means something totally different.

Last night, I watched a movie from Ghana with my host sisters. Movies from Ghana, hysterical. Way overdramatic, horrible acting, and completely ridiculous plot lines. Think soap operas meet trashy MTV shows. They speak English in Ghana, so the show was in English so I could (kind of) understand it. I was attempting to give recaps in French to everyone else. Fun night.

On a more serious note, we visited a CREN (malnutrition center) and have talked a lot about food security and malnutrition this week. Definitely preparing myself for the seeing and working with very emotional things. And I tend to get pretty attached to my work.