les choses très amusant!

Sorry for the french, it is getting increasingly difficult to just use one or the other - je prefere un melange! Which is good because no one here speaks english except the other volunteers. So, i havent blogged in awhile cause i havent had much to say - yes everyday is still ridiculous and amusing but that in itself isnt new so . . . i didnt feel like i had much to say.

Alors, I have been taking local language classes and some of the words for things are pretty funny. Well hold on, i just need to give you some background information first. Im white. In Africa. I am aware of my race every second of the day (okay, not when im sleeping but you get it). Sometimes the sight of me frightens small children - the belief in ghosts (ou bien, les genies) here is taken very seriously and i think they must think we are genies. Sometimes adults and older children ask me for a gift or money in french (im white so i MUST speak french . . . all white people speak french) and then I ask them for money in Mooré. Its hysterical, they cant believe that i speak mooré and then they think it is so funny that a white person would ask them for money. Sometimes from what people say and ask about the states, i think they really have the idea that money literally grows on trees.

Anyway, the point is that the local people are fascinated by my skin color - they are never rude about, it race isnt loaded with tricky conotations here. Well, at least not negative ones. So, the word in mooré for a stranger or white person is nasara (which i know i have mentioned) and most people here will just call you that as if it were your name. My mom had a woman helping here around the house for a few weeks and the lady always addressed me as nasara. Eventually i told her, in mooré, to call me Rebecca. To this she fell out laughing and still calls me nasara. White skin is just such a novelty here. In mooré, airplanes are called nasara-eagles and airports nasara-houses. Haha! That just cracks me up. I have decided that the one quality you have to have for peace corps service is a sense of humor. Without it you would just have to go home.

I move to my village in a week and wont start teaching for real until october after the rainy season ends. I cant wait to nest!