Bariba and patience

So since last week I’ve changed language classes, and now I’m learning Bariba, the language spoken in my village, with three other stagières – Becca, Summer, and Suzie.  It’s pretty cool to start from scratch learning a new language but I forgot how tough and frustrating it is.  I seriously lucked out coming in with some French, and because of that my French classes have been discussions along the lines of…so why do some Americans not want kids? What has impeded the development of Benin? more so than…ok so, would this sentence use the imparfait or passé composé?  We had language interviews last week to see if our French has progressed – mine was interesting, I was asked how many children I want and had to do a role play thing pretending I was giving a speech to the mayor about the opening of a new health center in my village.  We got the results back today and I actually moved from advanced low to advanced high, which I wasn’t expecting at all but is pretty cool.  I’m so not taking knowing French for granted, and it has definitely made the transition easier, it’s just that it’s also made the wall of Bariba smack me in the face a little harder because it’s been sort of smooth sailing up until now.  Peace Corps’ intention is really just to arm us with salutations in local language, but I want to know it ALL and it sort of irks me to see or hear something and not understand it.  I really like our teacher, she’s actually from Péhunco which is the bigger market town near Tonri.  It’s been interesting learning a new language in a foreign language, by which I mean that Bariba is being taught to us in French.  My notes end up being a weird Franglais mix. Sample of Bariba in case you’re curious:

À kpuna do - Hello    

A bwãn do? -  How are you?

Na siara – merci

Na n duro mo – I don’t have a husband

Woo yendu ka ita wan a mo – I am 23 years old

I’ve been in Benin for five or so weeks now, and I feel like I’m starting to decipher the Beninese little by little.  It’s really hard not to project my own mindset and Americanism onto everyone and everything I come into contact with here; I catch myself doing it sometimes and laugh – like thinking I’ll just microwave something that’s cold…uh...right.  Already it’s become evident how more efficient/cheaper/faster/I WANT IT NOW minded we are.  The Beninese don’t seem to think like that.  There’s not really pressure to get things done faster, because what would you do with that free time you gained?  I would say that they are very patient, but patience implies being conscious of the fact that you could be doing a lot of other things in the time you’re waiting for something else to happen. Stuff that’s considered indispensible in the États-Unis (paper towels, strollers, washing machines) aren’t really missed here – I mean why would you need a stroller when you have a perfectly good back for tying your baby on to?  Not that I don’t miss some of the convenience of the US – I had a dream the other night about Target.  Another thing is trust.  Having petite monnaie (pocket change) is a constant problem here because there’s not really enough of it in circulation, and so a lot of times you have to send a kid to go get change for you.  You can give someone a 5,000 bill though and know that they’ll come back with change for you, just like that.  And I live in a city.  Imagine doing that in New York. 

Other breaking news: there is a gas (cooking gas) crisis here because of a contract negotiation or something with another country, and so everyone’s running out and having to use charbon (charcoal), which doesn’t really affect me a whole whole lot except for the fact that now everything is cooked on the outside stove, near my window, so I have a constant fine dusting of charcoal ash on my clothes.  Gotta cook the pâte somehow though.