Things have been great so far, yesterday there was a big university game at the stadium. College kids tailgating is apparently a universal event, lol. Cars rollin up and cruisin, loud music blaring, beer cans a poppin. You gotta love Salone for their love of music and for Freetown running solely on generators. The speakers would be blaring Bob Marley, and when the speakers would die out, you'd still hear the college kids yelling out the lyrics as they make tribal percussion sounds by the stomping of their feet and making drums out of random wooden boxes laying around.
They even invited us PC folks to an exhibition relay race on the track where we got our asses kicked, I was just an audience participant. It was fun watching the futbol tournaments between the house colors. It was great experiencing an actual social event since we're still on lockdown within the confines of the stadium and hostel. Everyone was friendly enough to teach us Krio phrases. I even learned a little Mende the other morning when I had a conversation with Mohamed, a YMCA PM, he was nice enough to give me his grandfather's number for when I stay in Bo. Apparently, his grandfather had worked for PC back in the 60s to 80s I'm sure he would be a great resource for culture and language learning. Hopefully, he stays somewhere nearby our training compound as Bo is the second largest city in Salone.
We started language learning today. The language instructors were fantastic, they started the class by singing us songs and had us join in where we got up, clapped, jumped, and danced. I felt "IT" like "fuck, I'm in Africa, and I'm gonna speak Krio, this is fucking awesome! I...me....am a part of this....." I couldn't help it, I got a little emo and the glassy eyes started but I stopped myself in fear that someone might notice, lol.
The small groups were great, everyone was eager to learn. During breaks the instructors would initiate Krio conversations with us. We even did field testing and hung out and talked to kids playing by the stadium. They laugh but are eager to help as well.
It was a long day of struggling through the language skills but at least I'm giving it the good ole college try and being surrounded by an awesome language staff and local Freetown peeps around the way helps a bunch. It's crazy how we're being thrown into this language. It's exciting........"My name is Kristin, I am a Peace Corps teacher."
Tenki ya, gud ivin o :)
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