I Needed To be Fluent In Swahili Yesterday..

So after spending my first day in the office listening to a very strong and empowering woman speak about HIV/AIDS education with the Faraja Trust Fund staff at their regular Friday meetings, in full Swahili, it became apparent that I needed to be fluent in Swahili ‘yesterday’. Very few people in the community speak a lot of English, which will most definitely help me learn, but also most of the office staff seem to prefer Swahili (which is fair, it is the national language after all) and most people don’t speak any English at all, so I need to pick up Swahili soon! The office is hoping that in two months time I will be able to do a presentation and be fluent in Swahili, so I am also hiring a tutor to help be get there. Thankfully I bought a Swahili course book and CD before I left so now it is time to put it to use..

Also, after talking to my new supervisor about my work, my presumptions about the demographics (Swahili speaking villagers) I would be working with was right and so if anything, that has been forcing me to study Swahili in my free time! Most of my work will be with villages and peoples living in the rural areas, some of which I just found out speak Uluguru and not even Swahili, so it will be a must that I get a good grasp of the language fast. For any future interns who are to be taking over this position when I am done, study Swahili before you leave if you can, its worth it!

Although I am sure that everything will work itself out and before I know it I will be as fluent as anyone else, thankfully one skill I generally seem to have is picking up languages.. So far I can greet people (including saying my name and a bit about talking about family, and where I am from), count and deal with money (which is always crucial), and negotiate my way around things by saying I don’t know where I am going! Haha

Anyways, this is all I can post as of today thus far, so I hope you are all extremely well with everyone that is reading this, wherever you are! And I hope you will enjoy my posts about the weekend which is coming up.. All I will allude to now is that I went to a Masai Market and it was a rather interesting cultural experience!