BF Journal: 8/27 - 8/31

Quick note to my readers: future posts might be spaced out a bit more than you are used to.  Now that I am settling into a routine, there are fewer new things occurring daily.  I might take some time to write some other non-Burkina Faso blog posts that I have been meaning to do.  We will see, I am still bogged down with French and Jula.

I ran into (literally) some Marines at the gym.  They were leaving as I entered.  They said they were doing some work for the embassy.  Their hair made me think they were former Marines not active duty.  I was curious what they were doing but they were a little reluctant to get into specifics.  If I encounter them again I will try to meet them out somewhere for drinks.  I wouldn’t mind knowing if they were going to be around for a while so I can know if I have some English speaking friends.  Also, I want to squeeze it out of one of them over drinks.  When I figure it out, I might have to not tell you.  Or kill you.

Most of you who have spent time around me know that I am an eternal klutz.  When I went kayaking this summer, I all but fell into the water off of a dock that was two inches from my kayak.  I got that from my dad, obviously.  Granted I am not quite a bad as him.  He could trip over a rainbow, somehow.  But, I did manage to almost break the second most expensive thing I have here.  I tripped and dinged up my iphone (I use it for music) while running.  What’s better is the fact that I was basically not using it because it will not work with SIM chips here.  I brought it out twice, and I almost killed it.  I knew I should have bought a cover for the screen.  My newish phone now has Burkina Faso souvenirs on the screen.  

I am in good company though.  Oumar fell down the narrow stairs (I think) last night (8/30).  I took a picture of them next to the porch for one of my first entries.  They are kind of narrow and steep.  I know what you are thinking: don’t worry, I will stay away from them.  He came into my room last night while I was studying with a puppy dog look on his face, a tiny first aid kit in his hand, and he was bleeding from all four limbs (not gushing or anything).  I think I put like a dozen band aids on that poor guy.  I am glad I packed like 500 band aids, Neosporin, alcohol, and had paper towels handy.  He was too.  You may now refer to me as Nurse Nate at your leisure.  

I realize you have basically no idea what anyone looks like.  I will put some pictures up sometime of the cast and crew when I remember.  Maybe next Saturday, we are supposed to go out again.  I guess I better have cash by then.

I started compiling my Jula notebook into a document.  It is kind of early in the learning process, but think I am the only person on this project who is taking a serious crack at Jula.  Most others either speak some Bambara (which is basically the same language) from their time in Mali or just get by with French.  My impression is that Bmbara is to Jula what British English is to American English.  They are mutually intelligible but there are obvious differences in both the lexicon and pronunciation.  Also there exists some scholarship on Bambara but like nothing on Jula (based on a cursory glance at google scholar).  I mention it because I might turn it into something like a lesson book for Jula.  Especially, since I can write it for Spanish, English and French (soon enough).  Apparently there are people in Mali who also speak Spanish.  That may not happen, but I am kind of doing that anyways in study guide form for myself.  

Tomorrow (Monday, 9/1) I am supposed to take my first day trip out to a village.  This village is a Seeku speaking village (Laura’s current project) and we are just going to check some trees/plants.  Tuesday we might pack for some overnighters.  I am particularly interested in checking out villages about two hours from Bobo where they speak Viemo or Turka.  For more info check this link out (toward the bottom).  They are Gur (pronounced with the same vowel in the word sure) languages, which basically nobody on this project has gotten into.  I think Steve did one in Ghana.  They have all done Dogon or Mande languages, I think.  While, it would be nice to use other people’s grammars on this project for insight into whatever language I settle on (which would be the case if I did a Mande or a Dogon language), the fact that almost nobody does this language family (Gur) makes me sad for those languages.  

I am also morally interested in documenting languages that are spoken by a small population since, historically speaking, we know that they are likely to be supplanted by colonial languages (English, French, German, etc.), creoles that pop up like Nouchi in the Ivory Coast, or some local lingua franca (for here, that is Jula).  In fact, this entire area looks like it is becoming Julaphone, so there may not be much time.  I may talk about that in the future when I know more, so take the information so far with a grain of salt.  I am not exactly an expert on this region in two weeks.

I may update after the trip tomorrow or I might wait until after the overnight trips.  I will see you soonish on the interwebs.