Gagana Is Hard!

I'm in Apia for the day and only have a couple of minutes before heading to training, so just a quick update.

If all goes well, I'll be living in the house on my own, facing the lagoon.  It needs some work (currently the only electricity is to the one light in the ceiling and there's no cooking facilities) and hopefully that will be done before I arrive there on December 18.  Check out this video of my new village - Faga, Samoa. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VcgNV5ChhQA

The only fly in my current ointment is language.  Yes, I'd prefer hot showers and some enchiladas, but the real problem for me is learning to speak fa'a Samoa.  It's easier than English, but for me, is a killer.  They have a different alphabet and use a sound for "g" that we don't have in English.  It's sorta a "ng" sound.  Instead of putting the tip of your tongue on the top/front of your mouth to say "n", you put the back of your tongue on the roof of the back of your mouth to make the "gna" sound.  So, Faga sounds more like "Fawnga", but not exactly.

And the vowels.  Oh, my heavens, the vowels.  And can we talk about the komaleli'us (the mark in the word) and the fa'amafamafas?  That's the straight line over a vowel that changes it to a long sound and changes which syllable is stressed.  Don't even get me started on noun markers and tense markers.

Having said all that, I know my numbers, can tell time, know the days of the week/months, know words for common objects/food and can say complete sentences.  But by the end of the day, my brain aches.  And there are some Spanish words that are also Samoan words (but with different meanings...like "puta" means "fat" in Samoan) so sometimes I spit out a sentence that isn't coherent in English, Samoan or Spanish.

I'll get there.  Slowly.  Hopefully, I'll have some internet time Saturday and will try to load some photos from the training village, Sataoa and Faga.

P.S. Gagana means "language".  Be sure to pronounce it with both the "gna" and the "nu" sounds!