4 November 2009: An Amusing Post from Paul

Some facts of interest from our time here:

• The first son in each family here is called Lamin and the first daughter is fatou. There are a lot of Lamins and fatous. It can get confusing.
  
• Today our indoor thermometer reached the lowest temperature since we’e been here – 30ºC (approx 85ºf). this is still quite hot. At twenty past seen tonight it was 35ºC (approx 95ºf) in our front room.
  
• Courtney doesn’t like cockroaches. She likes killing them, but it seems they are pretty much indestructible. Go cockroaches!!
  
• Pooing outside in a hole is generally quite fun, but not the day after a game of football when squatting is quite hard on the legs.
  
• People here like to share food (eaten out of a big bowl with your hands) and it’s rude to refuse to share food when it’s offered. Because of this I was compelled to eat three lunches last Thursday – probably one too many.
  
• The local language here is Mandinka. They don’t hae words for everything so sometimes adapt English. A mobile phone is a ‘mobileo’, a motorbike is a ‘motorbikeo’ and a book is a ‘booko’. Now you know some Mandinka!!