Kiswahili

I've tried to learn Kiswahili to get by and have learnt enough to entertain the locals and occasionally fool them into thinking I know more than I do, which of course always backfires.

Greetings, among the first phrases to learn, are not straightforward. First of all you have to gauge the age and if they're older than you there's a specific etiquette. At the grand age of 50 I'm older than the majority of Africans but I still need to know the appropriate response!

Some of the words are tricky as they are so unfamiliar but others are easier, more familiar, although spelt differently:
- Kazi = work
- paalay = there

If in doubt it's worth adding an 'i' to the English word:
- ofisi = office
- basi = bus

My old favourite is a keeplefti, which is a roundabout and my new favourite is tangawizi, which is the word for ginger. (They have delicious gingerbeer called tangawizi.)

Although they have 'r' in a number of words they tend to get these confused with 'l', particularly when it's the first letter.... very Chinese! A, "Rion Loaring", doesn't carry quite the same urgency.

I've been introducing myself as Deborah which was a good call because it's a name they use, among the Christians anyway (Tanzania is 1/3 Christian, 1/3 Muslim and 1/3 other, tribal etc).  They pronounce it in a really delightful way, very musically, deb-oR-ah. Or, some of them pronounce it deb-oR-la!