"One coffee pleace. Without breastmilk, thanks."
How would you respond to that request? Thankfully, for a friend of mine, the man who sells coffee in our village is used to Americans and our awkward attempts at speaking Hausa and Zarma. Only after two weeks of ordering coffee every morning did my fellow PCT realize that he had been using the wrong word for milk...whoops.
Most days, for most of the day, I sit in a small, round hut with 3 or 4 other PCTs, staring quizzically at our language instructer as she pantamimes dramatically to indicate the meaning of the newest Hausa phrase. It is an entertaining, although often exhausting, game of charades.
Learning a new language, one completely unrelated to anything else we know, comes with many challenges and awkward moments. It's already very obvious that a good sense of humor and the ability to laugh at yourself are absolute musts for life in Peace Corps/Niger.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
1 comment:
I have no doubt that my opinions on Coffee with breast milk are the same as my opinions on Coffee without:
Nein danke
Post a Comment