Beginning the fieldwork

I had my first elicitation this morning with Ramata and her father. We started around 8 in the morning and went until noon, which is rather tiring. Got a good deal done, though, and it wasn't even too hard to hear the tones. Except for this strange bell shaped tone that Dogon has, this LHL, where the high isn't even that high. I'm sure I'll get used to it, though. I even found my first tonal minimal pair: naa (all high) "mother" and naa (rising) "cow". Don't want to mix those up!

I just got through some scattered things today, some vocab, the beginning of verb paradigms, and a bit on possession. Kinship terms and everything else work differently when possessed. More on that when I actually figure it out.

Abbie and I slept out on the roof last night. I set up my Bug Hut 2, which is big enough for a mattress, and slept under the most stars I've ever seen with the calls of roosters and sheep in the background. Whoever said roosters only crow in the morning was full of lies. They crow all freaking night.

But life is significantly better now that it's not being lived on an unventilated bus. Friday I head to the village for the first time, which I am both excited and nervous for. I'll probably stay there for about a week or two. Hopefully I can pop back onto the internet in the next couple of days, though.

That's all for now! Still no pangolins.