a swahili update

We've been taking two Swahili classes a week and practicing with each other and Kenyan friends when we can. I, however, I'm trying to unlearn some mistakes I made early on. I shared my embarrassment with some girlfriends back home, but decided sharing is caring and who doesn't want to hear a funny story about Laura's laments when language learning?!

So, taken straight from my email home...

"And in other news, I have the uncanny ability to turn an innocent Swahili word into something a little less polite. Our second lesson in, I mispronounced the word 'house' and instead of saying 'I like my house', I announced that 'I like my flatulence'. Our poor teacher was so embarrassed as she corrected me, and to my horror it appears my brain is permanently unable to get that word right and almost every class I've made the same mistake. 

If that's not bad enough, I also mispronounced the word 'drinking' and instead shared with the class 'I am pooing tea'. Seriously, what is wrong with me?! Asides from those two highly embarrassing mistakes, Swahili is fun to learn - easier than French and there are a lot of opportunities to practice each day."

So there we go, friends. However, you should know there are a bunch of other great Swahili words we are mastering, like pilipili hoho (capsicum) - how cool a word is that?

strange acronyms

A conference centre spearheading mice?

Turns out M.I.C.E stands for Meetings, Incentive, Conferences and Events. I love how they announce they are a mice venue here. I imagine thousands of small rodents, pens in paws, with promotional conference satchels, sucking on the complimentary mints.

swahili word of the day

panya mdogo - 'mouse'

language learning

There’s nothing like learning another language to realize how bad you are at English. We're learning just how little grammar we were taught at school. What’s an infinitive? Can someone explain the past perfect tense?

Both English and Swahili are national languages in Kenya. We started Swahili lessons as part of our orientation and have been practicing small phrases on our guards, the bus drivers and colleagues. We’re having trouble figuring out how to say ‘This is my wife’ or ‘This is my husband’ and a few times I’ve proudly introduced Will as my wife. Oops.

We’re hoping to find a tutor and start weekly classes with some Aussie friends soon. Sure, we can get by on other people’s English (and they speak it well!), but making the effort speaks volumes about our interest in this culture and its people.

And to be honest, you feel kinda dumb being the only mono-lingual kid in the room.

swahili words for the day 

Mme – 'husband'

Mke - 'wife'

the markets and the dreams

Quite unplanned, we stumbled into a large tourist craft market in Nairobi on the weekend. The large square plot was full of colour, with each shopkeeper displaying their various goods laid out on the ground before them. We weren’t interested in buying anything, but are always up for snapping some photos.

Before we’d even walked through the front gate, a local guy struck up conversation with us, stuck to us, and started guiding us through the market. We did our best to convince him that we weren’t tourists and didn’t require or particularly want a guide, but he was like glue and eventually led us to his small plot, covered with paintings and woodwork.

When a bunch of his friends crowded in around us, keen to drag us to their own handicrafts, we slipped our camera back into our bag, elbowed our way out of the crowd and went on our merry way.

Our favourite moment was when one shopkeeper delightedly announced ‘Oh I knew you’d come back Sir, I’ve seen you here before!!’ It was our first time to the market, and we obviously hadn’t seen him before, which I kindly informed him. Quick on his feet, his reply came ‘I saw you this morning… in my dreams!’

---

Speaking of dreams, we’ve been having some weird ones. Maybe it’s part of settling into a new routine and a new bed, maybe it’s the effect of mchuzi mix, an MSG product found in a lot of Kenyan food. Either way, the sleep talker has returned.

I woke up one night to find Will half sitting up, with his hand in the air like he was hailing a cab. I asked what he was doing. He said, somewhat unreassuringly, ‘Don’t worry, there’s just a snake in between us.’ I responded quizzically with ‘I don’t see how hailing a cab is going to get rid of the snake’ and we both promptly fell back to sleep.

Thankfully, there was no snake.

swahili word of the day 

nyoka - 'snake'