BF Journal: 12/22 - 12/28

12/22 – 12/24

My ears feel the familiar gust of wind as I am riding to the bank.  I know what is coming in less than two seconds.  Dust kicks again as I shield my eyes with my forearm.  My sunglasses seem entirely ineffective.  I wonder when sand became so merciless.  By the time I arrive, I feel a thin layer of red dust everywhere.  EVERYWHERE.

I am starting to get used to the dry season in Burkina Faso.  Or as I like to call it: the planet Mars.  Needless to say, the past few days have been dry.  It feels as though I have the same habits as winter here, minus some clothes.  This includes always applying chapstick when I go out, using hand/body lotion, and needing to protect myself from the wind with a coat (well, a thin jacket).  I don’t imagine the dust nor the wind get better for a while.  This has made running difficult, but I deal with it.

I finished up a rough translation of my first text and commenced a phrase by phrase and word by word translations (concurrently).  This process is a bit tedious.  After two days of this, we have basically one paragraph’s worth done.  I am learning some grammar in this process, but I hate feeling like I am not accomplishing a ton.  The morphology is essentially nonexistent so far.  There are some suffixes on verbs (that I haven’t quite figured out yet) and the presence of plural suffixes.  This likely means that most of my future work will come in the form of syntax and phonology. 

My consultant has trouble explaining how he uses various function words (words whose meaning is mostly tied to how they work in the language system; English examples include the, as, and got).  However he is fairly creative thus far with inventing other examples where he can use the word.  About half the time I am able to extrapolate the meaning and/or usage fairly quickly based off this technique.  He absolutely loves it when I figure out how to describe a grammatical particle. 

12/25 – 12/26

I woke up yesterday morning (12/25) in a village mud brick house.  It was sweltering even inside.  An open window was my only comfort.  A single shaft of light peeked through the aluminum door.  Fine particles ceaselessly churned in the sun.  This mesmerizing dance easily captivated a man with a thundering headache.  Until… OUCH!  This laser beam was not tolerable against my bare calf.  Naturally I tried it with my hand, just to be sure.  I understand now why the Anakin Skywalker was such a crybaby.

For the winter solstice holiday, I hooked up with a couple of Peace Corps volunteers and went to one of their villages (and stayed in the house described above).  It was fun to meet some people and I practiced my terrible Jula skills in a market in Bobo before leaving.  One of the volunteers I met works in a language area with significant variation between villages (but with the same language).  I may follow up on this in the future, but I already have a few project ideas that I am toying with for future studies.

The holiday meal was satisfying and rather uneventful.  I left the village to hitch a ride to Bobo shortly afterward.  I arrived before nightfall and passed out shortly after dinner.  Today was work as usual.

12/27 – 12/28

My text work continues and has become more interesting.  I am starting to enjoy seeing what I can recall with little effort from the previous day and it doesn’t feel so slow.  I picked up on some other grammatical particles today (12/28).  I also noticed that this text work is helping me memorize vocabulary.  I am killing two birds with one stone and it is fun to boot!  It is a good feeling when your daily work routine is pleasurable and edifying at the same time. 

I am getting anxious to make a trip to Karankasso-Vigue, but this will need to wait.  No date on this yet.  I am also anxious for the New Year celebration here.  Apparently it is basically a two day party.  I guess they go hard here.  I hope I can keep up.  And not make a fool of myself.  Or perhaps, that is exactly what I should do…

BF Journal: 12/19 - 12/21

12/19 – 12/21

                                       

There is a meat shortage in Bobo at the moment.  Fish almost every day.  If I never see another fucking fin in my life, it will be too soon.  There go my plans to gain weight back. 

The entire day (12/21) felt it would storm at any moment.  The air was heavy, breezy, and electric.  It didn’t even rain though.  I clearly am not acclimated to Burkina yet.  I gave Bakary the day off today.  What I mean is: I gave myself the day off but Bakary benefited.  He went home to see his wife and kids for the night.  I just finished grad school apps the other day and I needed a break.  It gave me the chance to catch up on some writing and reading.

I decided to plan my return trip to Karankasso-Vigue for after the New Year.  I am trying to make plans with some Peace Corps volunteers but we shall see.  I like the idea of seeing some English speaking people every so often, but I am a little reticent about these individuals.  Some of them are a surprisingly racist for volunteering in an African Country.  I recall one conversation where one of the volunteers was very concerned that I showed people the movie Transformers.  “I don’t know if these people have the critical thinking skills to understand that isn’t real.”  No doubt, she was just looking out for their hypothetical wellbeing. 

That said, this country has made me act/talk in ways that I am opposed to, just to blend in.  Here is an example:

I went out last night with one of the guys.  After we got to our first stop, he turned to me and said (in Jula/Bambara) sògó té.  It literally means ‘no meat.’  That’s not exactly the way I would have worded it.  To be fair, I was also up for something casual, but I refer to woman as humans, not merely flesh for my enjoyment.  But my frenemy is already suspicious about me because I say that it is not okay to kill people for being gay.  I asked him once if he would kill me if I were gay.  He said no, because he knows me, but he would definitely cut of my penis in the middle of the night if I hit on him.  Every feminist bone in my body screams at me as I agree meekly.  Oui, pas de bonne viande.  “Yeah, no good meat.” 

We discovered a place that opened two weeks ago almost next door to our place.  He grins wider the Cheshire Cat as we walk in.  Apparently one of the meat shortages has ended.

BF Journal: 12/10 - 12/18

12/10 -12/12

I am starting the home stretch for grad school applications.  After the 15^th, I will be (nearly) done.  I have three more due the 15^th.  I am very much looking forward to being done with this phase and being able to concentrate on my Viemoŋ project.  Jeff and the Malians (Minkailou and Oumar) will be leaving in early January.  After that it is just me, Zaki, Bakary, and our cook Valentine.  I will basically be able to do village trips when I want to and get some serious focused work done. I am desperately looking forward to this.  Not that I mind Jeff and company.  It is nice to have someone to speak English with.  However, more people always means more distractions.

I have started typing the text transcription that Bakary gave me.  I am about halfway done with that.  We also commenced doing a rewrite.  What I mean is: making another copy of what Bakary thinks is the best way to say what he did in the interview.  Eventually, we will do an extremely narrow (precise) phonetic transcription of everything in the interview.  I will let you know if anything interesting comes of that exercise. 

I did finish (I think) writing a paradigm for one adjective.  This may seem like a small task but it was nothing of the sort.  Some of the nouns I used like the word for ‘house’ were able to combine with the same adjective (but different morphology) in several different ways and still mean either the same thing or almost the same thing.  And not all nouns were able to use the same combinations (of forms) with the same adjective.  The result is a huge table for one adjective.  The suffixes look exactly like noun suffixes in some cases but not others.  This was becoming such a headache that I actually used text transcription as a way to take a break from it.  Yes, listening to the same passages over and over is more fun than dealing with adjectives.

12/13-12/16

As far a work is concerned I have continued with the text transcription.  I am actually enjoying this quite a bit.  I noticed some phonological interactions (certain speech sounds affecting others) that I had not noticed before.  It is slow going but it is very nice to see Viemoŋ written out.  The script we are using might not be final, but it is pretty close.  All I really need to work out is how precisely I want to mark nasal plosives, nasal vowels and palatal stops and affricates.  And eventually tones, but that is a longer process.  Incidentally, this might change how we spell the language name itself.  No big deal, I only spelled it this way on my NSF application and every graduate school application.

In the process of doing this, I am learning a bit of vocab, which is obviously nice.  My next phase will be working on a translation of Bakary’s (presumably phonemic) transcription.  Then, I will likely work on a narrow phonetic transcription on my own.  

I made a quick trip to the village with Bakary to see his sick son.  Everything is cool, but I had some internet connection issues the past couple of days.  My USB stick that connects to the cellular network is finicky sometimes.  This created some application issues, but I will survive.

Bakary gave Jeff and me decorative presents since I last updated you.  Here is a picture of mine.  I do not know specifically what to call it, but it adorns my desk, along with my usual mess of papers and random electronics cords.

I am happily at the end of my graduate applications season.  I am considering taking a real break afterward by going to work in the village for a few days before the holiday season.  It might be nice to get away from computer screens for a few days.  I have no plans as of yet for the holiday period, but we shall see what I come up with.

12/17 – 12/18

I am nearly done with translating my first text.  It can be quite a trying process.  Because we are so early in our collaboration (and because my French is far from natural), it can take 30 minutes to arrive at a good translation of one sentence.  However, the process is giving my some ideas which I will pursue later.

Again, I may visit the village again pretty soon.  My end to the grad school applications season had a rather anticlimactic ending.  But I did drink some afterwards (I did say I needed to gain weight, right?).

My day to day life in Bobo is relatively quiet.  I go the gym with Zaki regularly and head out with a friend once or twice per week.  It is nice having a routine. 

I do not have holiday plans at the moment, but I am not generally concerned about this.  If anything, I am relieved at the prospect of not buying presents or shopping.  Maybe I should go to field every winter…

How do you guys like this new look?

BF Journal: 12/3 - 12/9

12/3

Not much of consequence today.  However, I did eat my first mango here.  It was imported from the Ivory Coast.  It easily put every other mango I have ever eaten to shame.  It was succulent and firm enough to chew.  Each bite sent nectar swirling around my mouth.  If there was a true ambrosia, this may have been it.  It was sweet and a little tangy.  The experience was so delightful that I swear it tasted…orange.  More orange than an orange ever could.  Jeff says he cannot eat Mangos in the U.S. after being here.  I am not sure how to feel about that prospect.

12/4

Today, I did my first interview with Bakary.  He answered all my questions in Viemoŋ.  I gave him a recording of the interview and asked him to transcribe it while I am in Ougadougou to get Jeff and attend the wedding.  I am curious to see what he comes up with.  I plan to get some writing done on the bus ride tomorrow, but we will see.  We are supposed to go out at some point according to Zaki.  I am sure I will have many tales of debauchery.  Or probably tales about how I spent the night in my room working on applications while Zaki and Jeff have a contest to who is the biggest lush (hint: the answer will be both of them). 

12/5

Zaki and I left for Ouagadougou today.  I did not get sick during the voyage this time.  It was pretty pleasant.  I worked on a grad school application some and listened to music from Mali (thanks again Laura).  I visited with Zaki’s family at his brother’s place a few hours after arriving.  They are all extremely pleasant.  Zaki’s father is still very interested it trying to give me alcohol poisoning.  Tomorrow should be fun at the wedding.

Had a traveler’s success story when two Italians jumped in our Taxi from the bus station (upon arrival).  I was able to chat with them in French and some Spanish and it felt pretty natural.  <<Pats self on back>>

12/6

Worked most of yesterday and today on an application.  This left me no time to see Ouagadougou.  I do not go to any sweet night clubs or experience Ouagadougou night life.  Maybe next time.  The marriage ceremony had really good food.  I definitely ate well.  It was over very fast though.  It was not what Zaki or I expected.  I had pretty much assumed that Zaki’s father was going to get his way.  Jeff’s plane arrived past midnight, so we all went straight back to the hotel and slept.  Exciting stuff, try to stay in your seat.

12/7

The bus ride back was uneventful.  It basically felt the ride out.  I worked on a different application and Floby (popular artist here) sung to me in Moree.  It was nice to joke with Minkailou again.  And actually be able to joke with him this time.  I suppose my French continues to improve.  He brought his soon to be second wife to meet everyone.  She does not speak French so I have limited ability to communicate with her.  I cannot wait to see what Bakary got done with his homework tomorrow.

12/8 – 12/9

Bakary did an excellent job transcribing our interview while I was away.  I haven’t had the chance to go over it with him yet, but it is seven pages of nothing but Viemoŋ transcribed by a native speaker.  It is pretty sexy.  The fact that he can do this with reasonable accuracy is encouraging for other reasons too.  I may be able to rely on him to transcribe texts after I leave the country.  This could be invaluable later.  I made some copies of it because it is quite literally the first time a native speaker of Viemoŋ has written something in that language.

I worked a lot with trying to pin down noun classes the past couple of days.  It may not seem like much, but I can tell you for certain that I have somewhere between two and five noun classes. This is narrowed down considerably from then dozen or so potential noun classes I thought I had.  What is holding me back is the interactions with adjectives (if there are adjectives).  I haven’t sorted out this system yet and until I do, I am not certain that I will have the answers I seek.

Linguists:

There are essentially two (or maybe 3) plural markers.  That tempts me to just arrange things under those plural markers as the noun classes.  However, phonologically distinct singular categories of each plural marker (usually having to do with labial consonants or rounded vowels) combine with different forms of the same adjective and I am not certain that it is allophonic or allomorphic variation.  Adjectives have nominal morphology and I am not actually sure if they are a separate grammatical yet or if they just understand what is noun is describing other nouns based on word order.  I am in the process of gathering data so I can get a bigger picture idea of what is occurring.

BF Journal: 11/23 - 12/2

11/23 – 12/2

I know it has been a bit longer than you are used to.  Please forgive me, I was very bogged down.  When I wasn’t working with Bakary, I was busy filling out graduate school application forms and writing statements.  

I am not done yet, but I had my first two applications due back to back, which made things a little hectic.  But I think I am back now.  I will do my best to recall the last ten days and fill you in.

Regarding my research, I partly answered some of my questions from a previous entry and found plenty of new ones.  I am getting very excited for January when I presume that I will have more time to devote this Viemoŋ project.  I would really love the ability to concentrate on mostly one thing, for once. 

People don’t seem to get much out of me posting data, so I will refrain from that (I may have mentioned that before).  However, I will still tell you about some things.  It seems like a lot of questions about pronouns will be answered by figuring out the semantic notions behind the alternations.  For example, when it comes to subject pronouns, there is a special class of them used only for actions taken affecting another person’s body.  The pronoun used when you are killing someone is different from killing yourself or a cow.  The pronoun used for taking someone’s clothes off is different from undressing to stripping the bark off a tree (same verb).  Interesting stuff, right?  That said, I still haven’t figured out what was going on with the different pronouns with the copula construction (in a previous post). 

I hope to make a village trip sometime soon to begin collecting texts.  I am basically just going to record a whole bunch of stories and interviews, practice some basic Viemoŋ, and try to get a little cultural observation time.  I have no idea when I will make this happen, but I suspect late December.  I want to be in Bobo for New Years.  Apparently they do two days of drinking/partying.  I fear for my liver.  Speaking of alcohol poisoning, I am going to Zaki’s brother’s wedding in Ougadougou, the same day we pick up Jeff from the airport.  We joke that Zaki has two stomachs, one for food and the other beer.  This isn’t much of an exaggeration.  He can drink a case by himself.  I call him beef, because he has more than one stomach and weighs like 45 lbs. more than me.  Drinking with him always gets me drunk.  I have a graduate application due that day too.  So big application, Jeff will at the airport, and a wedding to go to with a professional drinker.  What could possibly wrong?

I finally made contact with a Peace Corps volunteer staying in Bobo.  But she is leaving this weekend.  Good timing, eh?  Well, at least I got to have thanksgiving with someone (and one other volunteer) and speak English again.  We had chicken instead of turkey.  But one of the volunteers procured cranberry sauce and the other got bacon bits.  Don’t ask me how.  I am still impressed.  Those of you who know me on social media know I hate when people link pictures of their meals on social media. Wow, that hamburger looks so fucking different than other hamburgers, my life is now complete.  Especially during holidays… we are eating the same thing people.  Allow me to be a gigantic hypocrite and give you a picture of our Thanksgiving meal.  I am in a foreign country and I never do this, that makes it okay, right?  Even though I absolutely hate myself for doing this.

In other news, I was told that I am getting skinnier.  I had noticed that I have abs once again, but I hadn’t noticed that I was losing mass all over.  Apparently it is obvious to people here.  It is vexing to me since I have been going to the gym three times a week.  It is strange because my strength is improving (I am lifting heavier things and putting them down again).  It is stranger still because my diet is basically carbs, tons of fruit, and greasy vegetables.  I joked that I have a parasite.  I will never make that joke again.  It me forever to convince Oumar that it was just a joke and that there is no way I am going to the clinic for that.  I changed my diet a bit to add a higher protein content and I hope it does the trick.  Not that I am trying to become a body builder, but I didn’t think I would lose weight while regularly hitting the gym.  However, I weighed myself and I had lost 10-12 lbs. since leaving the U.S.  Does this mean I should drink more beer?