Unasema Kiswahili?

We woke up early this morning and after the immediate tasks - changing Ben's nappy (a nasty one!!) and cleaning Esther's eye (poor little poppet has conjunctivitis)- it was time to reach for our Swahili phrase book.

The milk-lad came at 07:45 with our milk (still warm from the cow) and we needed to explain to him that we are going away tomorrow, for 4 weeks, as we go to language school in Iringa. We had a hotch-potch conversation and we think he understood, but if he turns up with milk tomorrow morning, we'll know we failed!

Then it was time to chat to Jane. Jane is a lovely Tanzanian lady who is coming to help me twice a week at home ( horray!! it's great to have an extra pair of hands!) with the bread-making, hand-washing, ironing and cleaning. I needed to explain how long we'd be away and plans for coming in while we're away, holiday leave, Christmas arrangements, wages etc. Swahili phrase book in hand, and pencil and paper at the ready to write the words I can't pronounce, we muddled through and all was arranged, with much laughter and patience! My Irish neighbour came in later to translate everything, as she's fantastically fluent in Swahili, but it appears all has been understood! The Lonely Planet phrasebook works well!

Next, it was off to the local duka (shop), a small wooden shed-like building opposite the MAF compound. I needed tomatoes ("nyanya") and all went smoothly, but the drama started at the next duka when I tried to buy margarine and tea. The young shopkeeper was very friendly, but you can't go into the shop. You have to ask for things through a metal grill: so we can't just wander in, select what we want from the shelf and pay. That would be cheating. No, we have to use our Swahili! My attempts to get the correct margarine and the right tea caused much hilarity to the shop-keeper, the other customers leaning against the side of the shop and to me, as I kept getting it all wrong!! Working out the money took a while as well and by then, it was a community affair, with many interested onlookers and lots of smiling and commenting!

Anyway, our Swahili lessons start on Monday. Hopefully, after 4 weeks of language school, we may be able to do our shopping with a little less drama and have easier conversations with our milk-lad and Jane...

Introducing you to Jane