Today was a good day.
My language tutor was not able to make it to our lesson this morning. He told me that, if he was able to find enough help, he hoped to harvest his crop of millet. He planned on working all through the evening and stated that possibly he would be too tired for our meeting. I believe this qualifies as one of the most legitimate excuses I have ever received from a “prof”:-)
The weather here has consistently remained between 104 and 105 degrees for the past week and riding my bike into the village during the hottest hours of the day did not sound very appealing. So instead of my lesson this morning I got ready and left to visit my language contacts in the village.
Sureeya is a young woman with three children who is an incredibly good language helper. She lives with her two sisters-in-law as well as her mother-in-law in the same compound. We sat and chatted for approximately 45 minutes, all in Fulfulde! She speaks slowly, repeats herself often and is very patient. She can also re-word phrases when she understands that I am hung up on a particular noun or verb, she is a huge help.
Two weeks ago when I visited I asked if I could take a photo of her boys all dressed in their duds to go to Koranic school. She said yes and asked if I could take a photo of both of us as well! So this time I happily obliged and brought along my camera. Well, the boys were not photo-ready, but she hastily changed into one of her best outfits and dressed her newborn. When I took a pic of the baby and showed it to her, she asked why she wasn't in it as well:-) So then we set up the auto timer and went to town! The result was some very lovely photos.
Before leaving she fed me some fried bread balls and a very sweet coffee. She placed my coffee in her prettiest teacup, Africans are wonderful hosts.
So today was a good day. I talked in Fulfulde, avoided the heat and advanced a bit farther in my understanding of this culture. Most importantly, I made a friend.
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