Learning Swahili in Morogoro

The view from my room at the convent in Morogoro

It is week two in Tanzania and things are going well. I am in Morogoro with the same group that I was with for my first week of training (for the most part, a few of the volunteers went directly to their placements). We are staying at a convent and attending language training classes daily. You will all be happy to know that I did not spontaneously catch on fire upon entering the convent.

Morogoro is a beautiful place and the convent is a huge improvement over the Econolodge. Apart from the lively market, Morogoro is very green and we have a great view of the mountains form our room. It is much more laid back and peaceful here – I would have thought that these would be ideal conditions for learning, but I’m afraid I’m struggling quite a bit. Kiswahili is not easy to learn, for me anyway. 

The market in Morogoro

One of the challenges that I’ve encountered is that there are a lot of words that sound almost exactly like other words. As it turns out, many of my mispronunciations seem to mean things that I would most likely not want to say on a trip to, for example, the market. Allow me to illustrate this with a couple of examples:

• If I were to say “Ninataka toka” it would translate to “I want to go”. If I were to just mix up a couple of letters though and happened to say “Ninataka tako” it would now translate to “I want bum”.
• You all know that I enjoy a drink now and again. So it might be common for me to say something like “Nilikunuwa” or “I had a drink”. Once again, a slight mispronunciation can make a big difference. If I instead said “Nilikunya” it would roughly translate to “I had a poop”.

It seems odd, but when other people in my class mispronounce things, they just end up saying nothing. But when I mispronounce things..... Well you’ve heard how that turns out. Through my struggles I have also managed to come upon words for both male and female body parts. I’ll remind you all that I am only at day 3 of my language training....

Although I have continued to spot African wildlife (see photos), I am happy to report that I will be going on my first safari (or game drive) on Friday. We will be taking a car and heading to Mikumi for the morning/day. Especially exciting to me is the fact that the star of the show in Mikumis is.......... wait for it....... the HIPPO! It’s gonna be great! We should also see some elephants, giraffes and zebras among other animals. I will be sure to let you know how it goes and also post some photos!

This is roughly $100 Canadian dollars

And speaking of safaris – do you want to know who seems to be on permanent safari in this country? Mr. Credit. “Mr. Credit is on safari” is a common phrase to be seen on signs in hotels and shops, followed by “Mr. Cash is King”. You know how VISA is everywhere you want to be? Well apparently VISA does not think that you would want to be in Tanzania so you better bring some cash if you want to come here. And it better be a big wad of cash (please see photo inset). 

I hope you all had a fantastic Thanksgiving! 

V