Did you know that Tanzanian’s often are fluent in three or four different languages? Most will start out speaking their tribal language, native to a particular region. They will then learn the national language of Swahili (and their initial schooling will be in this language) and then, when they hit secondary school, everything switches to English. I’ve heard so many people in the UK complain about the increased work-load of secondary, but can you imagine a language switch as well?! Ahhhumm.. these guys really do put us Westerners to shame. Anyway, all this mirks my waters a bit, because I’ve happily been learning Swahili greetings, only to realize that a lot of the people around here prefer to use their native language of Kehehe (I *think* that’s the correct spelling…) anyway, so I now know how to say hello in Kehehe (Kamwene) but don’t expect me to continue speaking in Kehehe.. and once we’ve got beyond the how are you’s, don’t expect me to continue in Swahili either, for that matter…and if I was to say the same about English, then you could rightly call me dumb or just a plain ‘grumpy old Git.’
Soo, after a very busy Easter period of just over 2 weeks, I was pleased to see the back end of all the guests staying at the lodge, but I wasn’t so happy to see Anja head back to school in Dar. The 3 extra weeks that I’ve stayed on have been relatively quiet guest-wise, which is great because I’ve been able to focus on the horses/workers and personal interests, instead of always occupying guests. We did have a couple of guests staying the odd night here and there, the most important being the Tanzanian ambassador (how’s that for going to a country ‘to meet the queen…’) and the most fun being a group of 37 university students from America, they’re all out here for 3 months on an educational type of tour (I swear there’s some fancy word for it) anyway, they’re continuing their classroom/lecture-style studies out here, as well as getting a lot of practical (‘on the field) experience (most of them are studying anthropology, world development, environment, economics or something like that). They were all a very friendly bunch, and I’ve now got some USA buddies to meet up with when I go back to Dar (if I manage to catch them before they fly back) and potentially stay with next year if I continue Parelli studies in the USA. Geoff Fox continuously teases me about my English accent, and got me to give the Americans ‘English lessons’ (you guessed it-‘the rain in spain..’) it was all a big laugh. OH, speaking of Englishness, the couple that oversee the NGO (orphanage etc) also teach English lessons to local adults. I’ve helped teach these lessons on three occasions, its amazing to see people so eager to learn. The Africans really do value things that we take for granted.
I’m reading a book (called the Africa house) about an English gentleman in the early 1900’s who moved to what was then Northen Rhodesia (now Zambia?) to build an English manor house. Its so quaint to read about his experiences, and how he tried to create a ‘little England’ in the middle of Africa. Anyway, this leads me to a BIG pet hate or mine, that of going against or for culture. It is so easy for us Westerners to belittle someones culture in our efforts to help.
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