Me don ekkita Fulfulde sedda sedda

For those of you who are curious, the title of this blog means "I am learning Fufulde slowly", which I am. But, I am learning it! You pronounce Fufulde exactly the way it looks - it isn't really a written language so I just wrote it out how I would say it. Exciting news in that department – I made my first purchase using Fulfulde. I was trying to buy “kitchen pagne” and the guy wanted me to pay 3200 (borroro tati et temerre didi) CFA but I got him down to 3000 (borroro tati) by speaking to him in Fulfulde. Woot. Way to go me. So, I did get the gas and I did get the bottle home. But, let me just say that riding a motto with a driver, me, and a large gas tank is interesting. I did make it home safe and sound though with the gas I needed to cook with so – all in all a success I say!

Saturday night I didn’t sleep much for some reason and so to stay awake and insure that I would be good and tired on Sunday night I spent Sunday cooking. I went crazy with the cooking. I decided to make all the things I had wanted to make but hadn’t had the time or energy to attempt. I made (keep in mind all of this is from SCRATCH) yogurt, cheese, fudge, chili, and cornbread. The cornbread involved finding corn to be ground in the grinder into corn flower. Yea, I mean FROM SCRATCH. But, I am happy to report they were all successes and Mike and I happily ate them for a few days. I will definitely be making them again. The cheese tasted kind of like ricotta. The yogurt is like European yogurt – unsweetened and thicker. The chili was with beans but no meat (Yankee chili according to both Sam and the PC Chad cookbook I was using as a basis for my recipe – but of course didn’t listen to).

My wall is making progress. Everyday more and more of it is built. It is being made from mud. Apparently I have to coat it in something so that it won’t die during the rainy season. I am currently trying to decide whether to pay about $120 for them to cover it with cement/sand combo or to pay about 25 dollars to have them cover it with something else that I don’t yet understand what it is. My English construction vocab isn’t great – let alone my French or Fulfulde.

Tuesday was a huge day here. It was the “Fete de Obama”. I wore an Obama shirt around all day and got tons of complements and well as a number of people asking me if they could have the shirt when I leave! Haha. People had taped pictures of Obama to their mottos. American flags showed up around town (hand made and inaccurate with the stars and stripes count). Obama posters were around as well. It was hilarious, they were so excited. I have no TV or cable so I didn’t get to hear the speech or anything but I heard about it from my family and heard it was pretty great. People here were trying to find it on the radio but the signal wasn’t great that day or something. Anyway, thank goodness I know I can watch it on you tube next time I am at a place with internet that will handle you tube (ie when I get back to a Western country).

So apparently this issue of sleep was going to last all week. Tuesday night I also didn’t sleep well and so Wednesday I was in a funny (lack of sleep induced) mood. I went en brousse with the health center to a new village I hadn’t ever been before. Immediately children started to direct their attention to me. By the time the childhood vaccine consultations began I had a crowd of easily 60 children (between ages 4 and 16) watching me. The older people in town tried to chase them off with sticks but these children wouldn’t be chased off. I tried to say that they weren’t bother me but figured they might bother the women whose babies were getting shots so I didn’t say anything. But, I did start making funny faces at them – I would grin suddenly, make a fish face, stick out my tongue, etc. They would laugh hysterically and hide their faces and then wait for me to do it again. It was adorable. But, having a group of people stare at you like that makes you want to do crazy things. I wanted to do something crazy like put on my motto helmet and chase them around or something. Start yelling and waving my arms. You know? Perhaps I was just that out of it from the lack of sleep. So, when I got home I was still in a weird mood and decided to rearrange furniture. Well, first I just decided to clean this traditional bed that was in my living room. So, I dragged it outside and used a can of insecticide (to kill the numerous large spiders that lived under it) and a bucket of soapy bleach water and an old rag and went to work. Once it was clean and already on the porch, I decided to see what the futon and chair that were currently on the porch looked like in the living room so I cleaned them off and dragged them inside. I have decided I like them and left them inside. Moving all this furniture was interesting though and it was super hot and so I was glad I had left overs I could eat for dinner!

Oh, can I just say – salad season has begun. Overnight lettuce is now everywhere! I am super happy about this and have been eating large salads every night! I am getting creative with the dressing though since I am all out here. I like to keep it interesting though!

One day after work, the chef of the health centers daughter came home with me to watch a movie and make ice in my freezer that she was going to sell at the market (or something like that). So, during the middle of “My Best Friends Wedding” she gets up and goes into my bathroom and I suppose started looking at all the things I had. She brought out two things to ask me about. One was mascara. I didn’t know the French words for makeup or eyelashes so I said “it’s for your eyes and then proceeded to put some on to show her). That seemed to satisfy her in terms of mascara. She came back out like 2 minutes later with item number two – a tampon. She had taken it out of the wrapper and was asking me what it was. Of course I also don’t have the French vocab for that (and I am not sure she did either as French is also her second language). I told her it was for women to use every month when they were bleeding. Nope, that didn’t mean anything to her. She is 13 so perhaps she doesn’t need that knowledge yet, but I doubt it. I brought out a pad to see if she knew that that was. Nope. Then I brought out the tampon box which had French on it and tried to explain it to her with their phrases – Nope. Finally, I decided to use the all encompassing phrase “it is an American thing”. That did it, she was satisfied with that answer. Bizzare to think that a 13 year old girl would have no concept of what that item was. Made me think of the airport incident with the security men and Courtney. Ha. I laugh just thinking about me showing him what the item in question was (they were crazy about security after 9-11 and some of those security people were just stupid!).

On Thursday I head to the big market in Adoumri to pick up a few things I still needed for my house. This trip is suppose to take 30 minutes max. It took me 90 minutes to get there because 7 minutes outside of Bibemi we broke down (something with the front drivers side tire which is always the problem tire in bush taxis it seems). So, we had to wait til some car came around that was willing to take us. Finally, an hour later one came. It was about 95 and no shade and not super fun – but , I got there in one piece so no harm done. I had known to bring water (you always bring water when you travel, even for short trips). At the market I made an exciting discovery – WORLD CUP PAGNE. That’s right. They call it FIFA, which made me laugh, but I’ve officially seen it now. I know it was just the first of what I am sure will be many more World Cup pagne’s but I am excited to start getting crazy things make to wear during the World Cup!

Alright, I will be posting this tomorrow when I go into Garoua for our provincial meeting. But, before I end this blog I must brag about my sister for a second. She got TWO internships – one with the state house in Boston and one with American Public Television. Also, she got accepted to the DC program so she will spend next fall in DC. Way to go Courtney my dear! I am so proud! Alright, hope everyone else is as excited about the new president as the people in Bibemi are (or heck, at least ½ as excited would suffice)! Lets hope I have some packages waiting for me in Garoua – I think Kauleen (my new favorite person) may have brought me up some from Yaounde!!!!! WOOO HOOO. I love mail (hint hint) even cards and letters are awesome so start writing people!