Toothless old men!

I'm in front of the computer, yay!

This past Tuesday, the day before I left site, I had the longest conversation I've ever had in Pulaar. I was talking with ten-year-old Pippi Isatou. Our conversation was about a toothless man who lives in Basse.

Here's what I remember of it, complete with footnotes:

Pippi Isatou: Tomorrow you will go to Basse?

Me: Yes.

Pippi: There is a person in Basse whose mouth does this [she sucks in her cheeks]. His cheeks enter his mouth. If he will talk—blah blah blah.

Me: He cannot speak?

Pippi: Blah blah blah and his mouth is like this [she sucks in her cheeks again]. And he does not have many teeth.

Me: How many teeth does he have?

Pippi: Two here [points to her top teeth] and two here [points to her bottom teeth]. Two above and two below.

Me: Only four teeth? Two and two?

Pippi: Two above and two below. You have never seen him?

Me: It is a man or a woman?*

Pippi: A man. He will chew kola nuts. He chews them like this with his teeth [she delicately nibbles the air]

Me: He is able to chew kola nuts? With just a few teeth?

Pippi: Yes.

Me: Slowly, slowly? Will he spit out the kola nut juice?

Pippi: [confused expression] Will he do what?

Me: Will he do this [spit] with the kola nut juice or will he swallow it?

Pippi: He will not do this [spit]. He will swallow it. But the ____and ______ (the blanks were words I didn’t know, but are presumably parts of a kola nut** ), he will do this [spit, spit]. And the ____ in his mouth, he will do his [runs finger along bottom gums] and then this [shakes imaginary chewed bits of kola nut from finger].

Me: Ah, I understand.

Pippi: He has a lot of clothes…men’s clothes, women’s clothes… in a sack. You know what a sack is? For your baggage.

Me: Yes, I know what it is. He will sell the clothes?

Pippi: Yes. And the Serrehules will come. You know the Serrehules? From Koina and…

Me: Garawol.

Pippi: And Garawol. They will go to ____ (a village I'd never heard of) and buy clothes. And on Sundays, on Sundays they will go to the weekly market.

Me: The weekly market where?

Pippi: The weekly market.

Me: Fatoto’s weekly market?

Pippi: Yes.

Me: But the man who has only four teeth will not come? To the weekly market?

Pippi: He will come! You have never seen him?

Me: No. He is an elderly man, or … ?

Pippi: Yes, an elderly man.

Me: Is he tall?

Pippi: He has many years.***
Me: But, is he tall, or…?

Pippi: No, he is short.

Me: He is not tall?

Pippi: No, he is not tall. But his teeth are long.**** The teeth above are like this, from here until here [indicates the distance from the fingernail to the first joint of my index finger].

Me: Heh!

Pippi: And one of the teeth below is big. And his teeth do this [sticks out a finger to indicate that the tooth sticks out sideways]

Me: It does this? [I do the same]

Pippi: Wait. [she grabs a small twig, snaps it so it is relatively ooth-sized, holds it up to her own teeth and makes the twig stick out sideways] They do this. And his teeth are very dark.

Me: They are dark?

Pippi: They are like this [she points to a yellow stripe on the wrap-skirt I’m wearing]. Yellow.

Me: He will not brush his teeth?

Pippi: I don’t know. I don’t know if he will brush his teeth.

Me: I think he will not brush his teeth. If his teeth are…

Pippi: Do you have a tika boroos?

Me: Do I have a what?

Pippi: Tika boroos.

Me: I do not know what a “tika boroos” is.

Pippi: For doing this [uses her finger as an imaginary toothbrush]. You have a tika boroos and soap?

Me: Yes, yes, I have that. A toothbrush.

Pippi: In the morning you will do this [pantomimes brushing teeth and spitting out a gob of toothpaste]

Me: Yes, I will do that.

Pippi: Morning only?

Me: No, night also. Morning and night. Two times.

Pippi: But you have only one “package”?

Pippi said “package” in English (as she had been saying “toothbrush” in English) but I was spared trying to figure out her question by her mother calling her away.
 
 
 
The footnotes:
 
*Remember, Pulaar uses the same word for he/she/it. In translating to English, I didn't want to use "it" to refer to a person, so I used "he," even though at this time in the conversation I did not yet know we were talking about a man.
 
**This is interesting, because I didn’t realize kola nuts had separate parts to them.
 
***Let me explain Pippi’s misunderstanding:
1) I unexpectedly changed from a question of age to one of height
2) In Pulaar “tall” and “years” are similar-ish, “juutde” and “duubi” respectively
3) I probably phrased the question wrong, I think I asked “Does he have tall?” instead of “Is he tall?” or “Does he have height?”
 
****Let me also explain that in Pulaar the words for “tall” and “long” are the same, so the
logical connection between a person's height and his tooth-length is more logical...maybe. But why wouldn’t we return to talking about his teeth?