Countdown to Ghana and Planting time!

A little less than three weeks til Ghana and counting!!! Actually I thought I woundn't be heading there until August, but as of today, the official plans moved up... about a month, which I think will actually work out better as I think August was going to be a little busy with Grain Bank preperations in my village. (which will hopefully work out funding-wise... there's a bit of 'wahala' in the funding department as most of our usual funding sources seem to be 'out of money until further notice'.)
But planting season has finally come and these past few weeks I've enjoyed heading out the the fields with villagers and planting millet. This is how it goes: First someone (usually the man of the family) creates lines with the 'Kwasa', a really heavy version of a hoe, and creates holes about a meter apart in rows about a meter apart. Then, behind him comes the children, women, (and me...) putting seads in the holes and covering it up with sand by foot. It really does go quickly, but most families have 3 or so fields that are huge pieces of land and work several days straight to plant them all. I wanted to take pictures and post them of planting, and I still plan on it, but, as of right now my camera is "out of batteries"... AKA, I have been completely worn out with my villagers on the picture front.
I can no longer walk down the paths of my village without someone demanding a picture, or asking me "when I'm going to give them that one picture I took 4 weeks and 3 days ago with the donkey or the little kid drinking hura"... that type of thing. I understand the excitement and fascination with my camera and pictures, but I've decided its high time for a rest until the excitement dies down- then I'll slowly bring it back out. But back to planting. So. We've planted our millet. As soon as I return to my village, we're going to intercrop beans and peanuts/ground nuts in the same fields, so fun's not over yet!
So today Leah (Fellow region volunteer) we're walking down to one of the 'ElHadji' shops as we call them, side note, an 'ElHadji' shop is I guess a really REALLY small version of a grocery store.. well, it's usually one room and they sell an asortment of 'western' stuff, toiletry items, juice, milk, canned goods, sometimes exciting stuff, like today, PRINGLES... Wow, back on topic.
So, today Leah and I we're walking to this shop and we had a really entertaining converstaion that all started with someone offering us a mango.
This was the converstation: Mango guy: Bisimillah (holding out the mango) Leah and I: Allahumdulillahi! (as we continue walking). Ok, what it means in my head: mango guy: want a mango? Leah and I: Oh, no thanks! But, literal translation: Mango guy: 'In the name of God!' Leah and I: Thanks be to God! Which, doesnt really make sense. But we that it was hillarious when we broke it down to the literal translation. Theres a lot of that in Hausa I feel like- even in the everyday greetings, literally when you ask greet someone in the morining with "ina kwana?" literally it's saying where's sleep? or Kun Tashi Lahiya? (how did you sleep) literally means You rose in health? And then there's these "all-purpose" words like, 'Sannu' that means, hi, thank you, sorry, and slowly, all depending on the context... Anyway, thats about it for now, I'm planning on doing a full two weeks in my village before comming back in in prep for vacation, so I'll try to write again then!!!!