Monday, January 28, 2008

News from Jody

I received a letter from Jody today written Jan 12 & 13. She says:
“I have moved in with my host family and will be learning to speak Hausa. I’m living in a village with Mamane Issa’s family. One other volunteer, Scott, also lives in the family group but he lives on the other side of the concession with the other half of the family. My family named me Barkatou Grand. One of the babies is named Barkatou Petit. They named Scott, Mamane Sanie. We spent some time while dinner was being cooked to learn some language from the kids, drawing pictures asking what things were and trying to get the kids to draw. We found out 5 of the kids in our gida (family) attend one of the three schools in the village. Our gida has a bull, some sheep and chickens. We spent Sunday in the village with our families. Mamane (Scott) and I spent a lot of time learning words from the kids. One of the first things we did was walk through the village with the women. We think to pay our respects to the family of someone who died or is dying. We came back and played with the kids and went to buy some ingredients for lunch. Some of our neighboring PCTs (Peace Corps trainees) came to visit and we played Frisbee with the kids and wrote numbers in Hausa on UNO cards. We went down out of the village with the kids to a water hole where a man was making bricks and helped the kids pick some fruit/bean things off some trees. The food is good but rich, lots of rice with veggie sauces and fried pastries for breakfast. Monday we go back to the training site for more lessons then back to the host family for dinner.”

7 comments:

luckydog13 said...

Sounds like this is adventure of a lifetime. Wow a new language. I don't guess that I even thought about that. It sounds like you are enjoying yourself. Keep us up to date on all that is going on when you get a chance. Hope to hear from you soon. Be careful.

Love ya,

Diana

Peggy M said...

HI!! I'm Scott's mom, (if you are talking about Scott Mahlik anyway) and this is in hope that you can just tell him hi for us and that we miss him a ton!! He might not believe this when you tell him that, but that is ok. It was nice to read your blog. We have received our first letter from Scott and would you also please tell him for us that he should date his letters so that we know exactly how long it takes for mail to get here from there. :) His brother and sister will be mailing him shortly. Really glad to know that he is close to someone that actually has a blog. We asked him to do one, but we will see if that ever happens. :) Well, HAPPY VALENTINES DAY to you and everyone. I am sure that, that is not a holiday very well known where you are. Our hearts go out to you and all the Peace Corp members. Take care. Peggy Mahlik

Jane said...

HI Peggy,
I'm Jody's mom! It was good to see your post. I am glad that our kids are experiencing this with other new volunteers. I received Jody's first letter on the same day she "snuck" onto the computer and entered her post. I was really nice to hear from her and to know that Scott was in her family unit. I look forward to hearing more from our kids and getting to know you and Scott.
Jane Kincaid

NIGER1.COM said...
This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.
SAMUELT said...

im jodys online pal. sounds like shes having fun
-Samueltehg33k/Evil Lizard

Dianna said...

What does "Barka Tou" translate to in English?

Jody said...

It dosent translate directly but its a Gretting/blessing used on specal occasions for example "Blessings on your birth"(cant remember the Hausa) or what youd say when someone sneezes and the tou makes it a female name.

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