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DRC: Pigeons, grass, et un peu du francais

Pigeon and grass for lunch today. Pigeon is good, grass is surprisingly not bad but it gets stuck in your teeth.

So far today has been translation day, and I’ve spent most of it with my head in the french-english dictionary.

Words like “outcome” and “output” have a specific meaning in development language, and it’s hard to know whether the direct equivilent has the same specific meaning in French, or whether there’s another word that’s used instead.

I’m having to ask a lot of people a lot of questions to get this right. Mais, petit a petit j’apprend, et je peux ecrire et lire plus francais que le jour avant. Don’t anyone comment to tell me what I got wrong there, I’m learning…

While I’ve been writing a really strong wind has whipped up outside – palm trees are being bent over by the gusts and the walls around me are shaking.

Un tempête, I’m being told, there’s going to be a massive downpour.  The thunder’s starting and the sky is going a dark metallic indigo. You can smell the static in the air. I hope the electricity and internet hold out.

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