Oh, what would the guys from home say if they could see me now. Here I am, a Peace Corps Volunteer in West Africa, and I had my first African drum lesson yesterday. I'm learning to play the djembe. That's right. Dave, Anthony, Ben, PJ, Adam, Andy and anyone else can commence with the jokes. But I am not a hippie.
That's just one of the classes that will soon be filling my schedule. Today was supposed to be the second day of school (the start date was pushed back to Oct. 12). However, there have been problems here getting a new lycee (high school) up-and-running so really I just show up for school and then go home 30 minutes later. I am told I will know more by Thursday this week. What you have to understand, is this is typical. But very soon, I will be teaching between 3-5 English classes at the local high school...inshalla (perhaps).
I will also be teaching adult English classes, a music class if I'm lucky and I'm enrolled as a student for French lessons. All of this added on to my current Hassaniya class. Things should get really busy within the month. So that is the latest news. Katie mentioned my idea for a RIM 'product of the month' blog...soon. So instead, I thought I would relate an interesting story about language this time. Hope you like it:
In Mauritania, if you make a joke or if someone really agrees with what you're saying they'll get real happy and slap hands with you. Its a cool feeling. The other day, in a "grocery store", I rambled off all of my hassaniya greetings. You kind of have to be careful of that because they'll assume you know a lot of hassaniya. He asked me some questions that I actually could answer such as I am a teacher, I work for peace corps, I am married. Then he told us the total of our purchases in hassaniya. Just take my word for it that the number system here is pretty confusing. He told us, smiled when I thought in my head, and he even covered up the register so we couldn't see like a game show. It was just a cool exchange. Then I guessed the number right and he said "you know hassaniya well!" I really don't but I explained that I learn a little more each day and I had also memorized this hassaniya adage i learned during training that goes "gittra gittra isiil ilwaad" which means "little by little, the river flows". He didn't understand at first because of my pronunciation and he didn't expect me to say anything coherent in hassaniya, but when he got it he yelled out loud, pounded the wall, and then did the hand slap thing with me. It was awesome.
That's all for now. Hope all is well.
Mike
That's just one of the classes that will soon be filling my schedule. Today was supposed to be the second day of school (the start date was pushed back to Oct. 12). However, there have been problems here getting a new lycee (high school) up-and-running so really I just show up for school and then go home 30 minutes later. I am told I will know more by Thursday this week. What you have to understand, is this is typical. But very soon, I will be teaching between 3-5 English classes at the local high school...inshalla (perhaps).
I will also be teaching adult English classes, a music class if I'm lucky and I'm enrolled as a student for French lessons. All of this added on to my current Hassaniya class. Things should get really busy within the month. So that is the latest news. Katie mentioned my idea for a RIM 'product of the month' blog...soon. So instead, I thought I would relate an interesting story about language this time. Hope you like it:
In Mauritania, if you make a joke or if someone really agrees with what you're saying they'll get real happy and slap hands with you. Its a cool feeling. The other day, in a "grocery store", I rambled off all of my hassaniya greetings. You kind of have to be careful of that because they'll assume you know a lot of hassaniya. He asked me some questions that I actually could answer such as I am a teacher, I work for peace corps, I am married. Then he told us the total of our purchases in hassaniya. Just take my word for it that the number system here is pretty confusing. He told us, smiled when I thought in my head, and he even covered up the register so we couldn't see like a game show. It was just a cool exchange. Then I guessed the number right and he said "you know hassaniya well!" I really don't but I explained that I learn a little more each day and I had also memorized this hassaniya adage i learned during training that goes "gittra gittra isiil ilwaad" which means "little by little, the river flows". He didn't understand at first because of my pronunciation and he didn't expect me to say anything coherent in hassaniya, but when he got it he yelled out loud, pounded the wall, and then did the hand slap thing with me. It was awesome.
That's all for now. Hope all is well.
Mike
2 comments:
Why is my name 1st..??? You know I love ya Mike!!
Just keep that hair short and stay away from Birks and I guess I'll have no choice but to beleive you
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