New Developments

I have not written for over two weeks. One might think something exciting or interesting must have happened (oh man, I forget how to spell that word- is it too soon for my English skills to be decreasing thansk to a new language crowding my brain?) by now. Well, you would be wrong. However, every day I learn something new, so here are some morsels of knowledge I have acquired in the past 14 days:
-I now know all the vulgar words in Pulaar. We had an entire class time dedicated to insults which was sweet. Of course, we were loudly practicing the pronounciation while our professor nervously looked out the windows and whispered to us to speak carefully
-I learned how to make tea Mauritanian style. It involves increasing the sugar load each round (of which there are three) making sure the third round will give everyone at least one cavity. Bubbles are also coveted, and created by raising the tea pot as high as possible over the shot-glass sized glasses. Sticky business.
-I can officially make the "cluck" sound that means "yes" here. I know I joked before I left the states that I would be learning a clicking language, and while I am not, I do cherish the noise that so many practice. It is made by sticking your tongue to the roof of your mouth and then pulling down. All with your mouth closed. The effect is quite nice, and useful for when you are wearing your headlamp and flies are literally swarming your face, just waiting for your mouth to open just to say "yes."