Me and Isaak were up till about 1am last night writing down and looking up phrases to speak to Odette, our housekeeper today. We had to start negotiating a contract with her for her employment with us. We had to talk about the days she could work, the times, her wage, what she will do...all that jazz.
Right. Let me just go climb flippin' Mt. Everest right quick. That seems a bit easier to conquer at the moment than discussing all of this in a language I don't speak.
Oh yeah, and I was especially nervous after Isaak told me that cat in french is "gateau". So yesterday while "talking" to Odette I kept calling Anna, "gateau" "gateau" "gateau"....which turns out means cake. Not cat. Cat is "chat". So when Isaak was tired and ready to sleep last night he said, "eh, what does it matter? These words are close enough, the difference is insignificant."
Um, I beg to differ! The differences are not insignificant! You had me runnin' around calling our cat a cake! That is a big difference. I don't want people thinking our cat is dessert!
Hence, the slight nervousness this morning.
But somehow me and Isaak both managed to stumble our way through the conversation. And when my sponsor Ima came by this afternoon she smoothed out the rest. Thank goodness for friends who speak french. :~) And then me and Odette worked side by side folding and putting away most of the clothes in our suitcases. I spoke to her as best I could asking about her kids, and names and ages, and where she's from...and, we talked. In a very broken way we talked. And I felt proud at the very small steps we are taking towards each other.
Late morning we had orientation at Sydaleigh's school. She met two other kids in her class, her teacher and the elementary principal gave us a tour and answered a lot of my questions.
After school we dropped the girls off at Ima's house to play with her daughter while we went to Bingo Market with another new gal who's only been here a week. It's not a market like I was thinking. It's actually a Lebanese grocery store. It's quite small, compared to "grocery" stores in the states. It's about the size of a gas station. But, umm, it had carts, and baskets, and there was even a box of Golden Grahams, holla!, on the top of one of the shelves....it was WAY more than I was expecting! But, it is still Burkina Faso, so most of what I saw I was told may not be available next time. The owner stocks whatever he can get his hands on, so the products change pretty regularly.
This is what I got for 50,000 cfa which is about $100.
Doesn't seem like a lot. But there was doubt that I would even be able to buy all of this for the 50,000. So the ladies that went with me had a bet that it would cost more...um, well, they don't know that I am like, the clearance queen. And okay, you may not necessarily have "clearance" here but shopping thrifty can be done from anywhere, and when that register totaled up for....wait for it...49,450 cfa!!
I started breakin' it down and busted out my "whoo hoos!" and "what up's!!" along with my fist pumps right there at the register! I turned and looked behind me at the rest of the customers in line...but I just got a lot of blank "who let this crazy American into our country" kind of stares.
*Note to self...people here will not share your enthusiasm for shopping cheap. Refrain from breaking it down at the grocery store you moron!
And that's a wrap for today.
2 comments:
that looks like it was a LOT of fun actually!!!!!!!!!
score!!!
but you got to the store and bought food for the first time! that's an accomplishment. love ya!
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