Sannu da zuwa. Yauwa, sannu dai. Ina kwana? Lafiya lo. Ina gagia? Babu gagia. Ina aiki? Aiki da godiya. Ina gida? Gida lafiya. Ina ciniki? Alhamdu lilahi. Ina saniyi? Aqwe saniyi. Me sunnanki? Sunnana Maduram. To, madella. To, kala tonton. Sai anjima.
Suddenly, the litany of greetings that we learned around a table in the library of the BU African Studies department have earned us huge smiles, shared laughter and a bunch of ridiculous situations.
Yesterday, we went to Le Musee. Niamey is not exactly a tourist capital, but it Le Musee nice national museum sort of place. It is a park with scattered buildings containing artifacts, cages with cramped animals and model villages. My favourite part, however, was the tent that is filled with traditional artisans working with leather, metal, wool and wood. When Tahanci (Shira), Larai (Laura) and I were able to greet them with "Sannu da aiki!" (Greetings as you work!), their faces immediately brightened. They explained what they were doing and taught us new vocabulary. They speak Hausa and Zarma in addition to varying levels of elementary French. Everyone was so eager to speak, so patient, and so enthusiastic.
The big topic of conversation is the "saniyi" (cold). Apparently, it's quite cold here. I've been wearing a light sweater in the evening, so yes, I suppose it's cold.
This evening, I sat on the stairs near the night watchman and added sentences from him to my Hausa notebook. I'm quite taken with learning Hausa through Hausa or Hausa through French. Our orientation Zarma class is taught using French.
Yesterday, we also went to visit Barke, a former BU student, in his house outside the city. There are sandy expanses everywhere here, so his house felt very isolated. He and his adopted son made us very strong tea. I ended up wandering outside and sitting on a bench beside a small group of girls aged 3-9. The 9-year-old was the only one who spoke a little bit of Hausa and French. The others only speak Zarma. After a bit, they became less shy. I picked up a stick and began to teach the eldest one tic-tac-toe with rocks and sticks. I wasn't sure if she really understood, but we played several rounds. Many more kids gathered, so I organized a circle for the "Down By the Banks" hand clapping game. Instead of learning the song, we counted up to dix as we went around the circle. The kid whose hand gets hit on dix was out. I've decided that I love teaching simple games like that without using much language. It involved a lot of jumping around, moving kids' hands and dramatic facial expressions. The game was a huge hit. Soon, we had tons of kids and many from our American group playing. Meanwhile, some of the guys from our group were playing a big game of soccer with the older boys.
That evening, we went to visit Barke's friends, who are fishermen on the Niger River. Everything around us is pretty arid at this time of the year, but there is quite a bit of green by the river. They invited us to go for a ride in their wooden canoes at dusk. They paddled and we bailed out water. The river was beautiful--so calm and misty. Some people saw a hippo, which is actually pretty frightening, because they are quite dangerous. Tahanci and I spoke with our First-semester Hausa knowledge to one of the fishermen as he paddled. We were very excited about asking questions and breaking out some of our vocabulary, but when I translated it into what the English equivalent of the conversation would be, it was pretty hilarious.
Imagine this with exaturated body actions.
Us: Bird! That is a bird!
Hamad: Yes, bird.
Us: Ohh! That is a boog bird, right? The boog bird is above the water.
Hamad: What?
Us: Boog. Little, boog. Little, boog. (hand gestures).
Hamad: Big. Big bird.
Us: Oh. That is a big bird.
Hamad: Yes.
Needless to say, Hamad, Tahanci and I laughed a lot on that boatride.
We went on a "windy-windy" (promenade) in groups of two, each with a Nigerien guy from the neighborhood. Sani, Hamudsha and I went to la grande marche and la petite marche, which are crowded, winding markets/bazaars with a huge assortment of things. I spoke a lot of French with Sani, and he told me the Hausa names for each of the things. We came across a bunch of clay, bark, sticks, and amber that have medicinal uses.
As you may have gathered, I am enjoying immensely the chance to learn and speak many different languages. In a land with many languages, everyone is acustomed to teaching, learning and stumbling along. Sure, there are lots of things that I wish I were able to express, and the language barrier is real, but over the last few days, language-learning has been a good way of connecting, too.
Sai anjima.
Maduram (which is the Nigerien name that was given me in a naming ceremony.)
Top: Larai, Tahanci, Zarai, Maduram, Yakawa, Ettikas, Alkemisa, NaitoBottom: Inazaden, Cawje, Hamudsha, Lawali, Inuwa, Betoji
We were visiting a women's microfinance collective, and they helped us tie our scarves.
Wow. This is unbelievable. I can't believe how much you've done in such a short amount of time! I got to where you talk about going into market and learning Hausa through French and suddenly got really envious.
ReplyDeleteI wish there were more encounters in New York similar to your boat ride, in which everyone is trying to communicate even though they can't completely understand eachother. Because there are so many languages back home in NYC but most everyone speaks english anyway so there are not as many haphazard conversations.
But learning Hausa through French? You're one BAMF.
Sounds like you're having such a great time! Show them hausa how we do in the states, Libby. Sai anjima!
I na son mi yin kube wa!
ReplyDeleteAlso. You're reminding me of how Tarzan learned to speak English. I quote:
D'Arnot wrote the first message:
What can I do to repay you for all that you have done for me?
And Tarzan, in reply:
Teach me to speak the language of men.
And so D'Arnot commenced at once, pointing out familiar objects and repeating their names in French, for he thought that it would be easier to teach this man his own language, since he understood it himself best of all.
It meant nothing to Tarzan, of course, for he could not tell one language from another, so when he pointed to the word man which he had printed upon a piece of bark he learned from D'Arnot that it was pronounced homme, and in the same way he was taught to pronounce ape, singe and tree, arbre.
He was a most eager student, and in two more days had mastered so much French that he could speak little sentences such as: "That is a tree," "this is grass," "I am hungry," and the like, but D'Arnot found that it was difficult to teach him the French construction upon a foundation of English.
The Frenchman wrote little lessons for him in English and had Tarzan repeat them in French, but as a literal translation was usually very poor French Tarzan was often confused.
I want to see the boog bird... :-)
ReplyDeleteMeanwhile, we await new of a snow day for tomorrow...
ReplyDelete~Laurie
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ReplyDelete