You can probably guess that we’ve started our language training. 🙂 Today was our first day and man, I feel like my brain might explode already!!! We went over the alphabet (which is pretty much the same as the English alphabet, just with 2 extra letters), syllables, long vowels, double vowels, double consonants, greetings, prepositions, colors, and the human body–as well as SEVERAL random words which we just happened to learn in the course of BB giving us examples and exercises. (BB is our teacher, or “cawundiko!” She was also our translator in Boubon, so it’s really helpful that we already know her.)

We have 6 hours of studying per day with BB. Our first session is from 9am-12pm, and the second is from 2pm-5pm. Of course, that doesn’t include the HUGE amount of studying and memorization that me and Em are attempting! Basically, we will be eating, breathing, and sleeping Zarma for the next week as prep for our move to Boubon!

~Please pray that me and Em will pick up on this language QUICKLY!!!! It is a necessity that we get the basics down before our move so that we can do simple things in “B” like know the time, get around the village, and buy food at the market.

Speaking of the market, we had our first experience preparing market vegetables for our sandwiches today!! I’m happy to report that we didn’t keel over and die. 🙂

I’m learning A TON of new things here in Africa and one of them that is essential to us “anasadas” is how to correctly prepare our food (especially if we buy it from a street vendor!) Today I learned that you have to soak your veggies in bleach water for a good 10-15 minutes. Then you have to rinse them really good in filtered water.

The missionary showed me how to work a gas stove for the first time! It seems easy but I’m really hoping I don’t get over-confident in my stove-lighting-abilities and blow up the guesthouse!! 😉 (Y’all might want to consider that a prayer request…haha!!)

Before I sign off, I thought it would be fun to share some new words and phrases that I learned today! 🙂

~Yesu go ay bine ra! = Jesus is in my heart!

~Yesu kuro kande faaba! = Jesus’ blood brings salvation!

~Ay ga ba how hum. = I like cow meat. (This is the closest translation I can have to I like steak. They don’t really have a word for steak here. Sad day.)

~Coca ga kaanu ay se gumo! = Coke is my favorite! (This was what I repeated SEVERAL times when the missionary brought us some surprise goodies! I had my first Diet Coke in WEEKS today and man was it tasty!!!! The treats and drinks also gave me and Em a HUGE sugar high…poor BB! Haha! But we were SO THANKFUL to missionary!!!)

~Bico go sako cire. – The pen is under the purse. (This was my first sentence that I correctly created/translated today!!!!)

Ok, well that’s all I have time for…we’re about to go make spaghetti for dinner! YUM! Gotta take as much advantage of the stove and refrigerator while we still have access to it! 🙂

Kala ton ton!!