Kiswahili

Swahili has been consuming my weekend. Since my host mom mostly speaks Swahili and several of the people I come in contact with the most outside of KASI/KCMC speak better Swahili than English, it's definitely a good thing to know. Nothing like a little motivation. I've made some good progress in a week, but I need to practice it more. Listening to CDs and reviewing flashcards can only get you so far. When I do speak to someone in Swahili, I get the distinct impression that even though the words I'm saying may be correct written, my accent is so bad that they don't understand. I'm really feeling for those PhD students leading recitations...

As I'm sitting here, I can hear my host family talking with their cousins. It seems like people all speak at the same time. I have no idea how they understand each other. Sarah's aunt just invited me to come to her place anytime. People seem to just pop into places here without calling or anything.

Still trying to figure out some things, though. Meal times are a little weird. Breakfast is whenever you wake up, which makes sense, but lunch does not seem to be at noon, usually hits around 2pm. Then dinner is somewhere between 6pm and 9pm typically. I guess that's not too weird. Just the lunch thing. And I should be used to varied dinner times (thanks mom). A little flexibility is a good thing.