Why is the ocean so blue?

Whenever you start learning a foreign language everyone says that the hardest thing to do is be able to tell a joke and have people get it and laugh, but once that happens you know you are in and good to go. Well that happened to me this week and it was really glorious.

I was chatting it up with my neighbors and they were complaining about a couple of things that I found to be ridiculous. One of which was how they aren’t allowed to sell things from their houses like yogurt or ice to the students because their houses are on the school grounds and it’s not allowed to sell things in a house that’s owned by the school. So they were complaining about that and I was a little upset because it also meant that I wasn’t going to be able to get yogurt anymore either which is unacceptable because it’s the highlight of my day when I get a delicious, partially frozen bag of yogurt. So, I was like ‘well if the problem is that you are using the school houses to sell then just put the fridge outside and then- no problems.’ Which was followed by a moment of contemplation, and laughter about how ‘yes! That’s the solution.’ Bingo!

Later that day after five hours of class, I saw my neighbor again and thought about how great a cold, delicious yogurt would be after a lot of talking and sweating. So I told her that I was going to come over later and that a yogurt was necessary but since you can’t sell it I’m going to give you some money as a gift and then you can give me a yogurt as a gift but the money and the yogurt are not related at all, which was followed by a moment of contemplation and then more genuine laughter. BOOM! Topical jokes, done and done.
Now I have to master the puns and word play, that’s going to be more of a challenge.

Another thing not about jokes but the things my neighbors were complaining about. They were talking about their servant girls. Servant girls are a huge, very common thing here. Like if you have a job at all, you probably have a servant girl, because you have a job and thus shouldn’t wash your clothes or clean anything.

Anyways, my neighbor was complaining about how her girl was in Ouaga again because she was sick and what was she going to do now because she has classes and the kids and she can’t watch the kids and work at the same time and then my other neighbor was like, ‘well maybe she’s pregnant.’ ‘Um, no I don’t think so.’ ‘Well I can help you look for a new girl until she gets back.’ ‘Well then I’d only have the new girl for a week and then let her go, but my old girl gets sick all the time and then doesn’t really work very hard so I kind of want a new one.’ Which was followed by my other neighbor talking about how one time she had a girl who stole from her and it was really hard, and you have to watch out for those girls because if you don’t get a good one they might steal from you or hit your kids or not work hard. But now god blessed her with a good girl, who works hard and doesn’t steal and you should really try to find one.

I sat next to them and listened quietly to the whole conversation blown away by how casually the idea of her being pregnant was said and then dismissed (me thinking that’s a huge deal but also how in the world would she find time to get knocked up?) and then the ridiculous nature of this conversation! Servant girls. Finding good ones. Ridiculous.