Gao now, brown cow

I just met my new family yesterday. I am Ansongo-boro (person of Ansongo) now. I really like Gao, banking and regional capital. Course it also helps there are seasoned volunteers here who have taken us under their wing. Turns out one of them has a little brother named Peter...and Peter was in Beijing with me!! Crazy huh? Ansongo is flat, sandy, and made up of wide, dusty roads unlike the curvy alleys of Goundam. I am off the main road, and from my roof I can see the Niger and its rice-paddy packed flood plain to the west. Today I biked to an animal market and bartered for cows, sheep, goats, donkeys, and camels. I don't think the vendors thought we were serious however. But I am serious. When else will I ever be able to own a camel? Or a cow? The hardest thing about my new home is that I don't speak the dialect. I think a guy asked me home to bathe with him yesterday. Of course I said no, I refuse. In my dialect...who knows if that was clear to his ears.