I will be flying from Paris to Casablanca to Bamako and right now, in 10 days, my plane will probably be somewhere over Mauritania, inch'allah. I am pretty much ready with all the Christmas stuff I am going to bring. I've got loads of little presents for him. Lots of things that he can't get in Mali or that are just way better quality in France: gloves, underwear, toothbrushes, mac & cheese, vanilla rooibis tea, lube, towel, playing cards, books, etc.
Then I've got Christmas decorations to make us feel Christmasy in the Sahel: Christmas lights, stockings, garlands, etc. My parents also sent us an *awesome* Christmas package with wrapped presents for each of us and things for our stockings.
I am brushing up on my Bambara...of which I have forgotten so much since I've left. Tonight, on skype I was practicing it a bit with my SO. I love to show him what I've learned because he's so proud when I can speak Bambara. Most foreigners in Mali make ZERO effort to learn Bambara (besides the peace corps volunteers) so Malians are really touched/excited/impressed when you can speak even a little Bambara.
It is a fun language and I enjoy trying to figure it out. In my opinion, the language is sooo simple that it becomes complicated. With English and French, I am used to there being a different word to describe different things.
In Bambara, one word can have twenty different meanings that all kind of relate. Example:
"da" means mouth, door, entryway, the road leaving out of a town
So then you can add other words to change it's meaning even more
"bo da" means butthole because "bo" means poop. So "bo da" is the poop door.
"da" also means many other things that have no relation like, "create, price, put, put down, lay, give, tell, believe, trust, and weave.
How can such a small word mean so many things??? This is the mystery of Bambara. I love it.
