bitter tomato

i spent my morning walking around d. trying to construct a map of the village and was standing at a crossroad, visibly befuddled when marie sow came up to have a chat and asked me what i was doing.

i successfully explained to her my intents and purposes and then added some flourish to the conversation by trying to add that i was confused about the road but instead of saying "maangi jaxase" ("maangi" = "i am"; "jaxase" = to mix/stir") i said "maangi jaxatu."

jaxatu, by the way, is a small little bitter tasting local vegetable that looks like a baby pumpkin and is called "bitter tomato" in english.

so basically i ended the conversation with marie by saying "and i'm a bitter tomato."