somo la kiswahili

life is a constant flow of changes - and when I first got here I was determined to learn the local language - kinyarwanda. I even put my name down once to join a class if there would be one going - but it never seemed to have materialised - and then I was just too busy living my life to make time for language training. I also realised that kinywarwanda is a) super difficult and b) not all that useful as it is only spoken in rwanda itself and in a variation in burundi - and I know that I don't plan on spending the next 10 years here.

so around christmas we decided together with my friend ines that we were going to sign up for kiswahili classes; kiswahili is spoken in all of east africa and in many countries is the common language - apart from english. so it will be much more useful if I am considering staying in the region and as a bantu language it is not dissimilar to kinyarwanda but much easier in its structure - so it is a good starting point.

a week ago we finally started our classes and went back to school. the classes are held in the belgian school and it really is like a teleportation back to the old school days. wonky chairs and tables that make a horrible noise when you move them on the concrete, blackboards and chalk, a neon bulb burning overhead whilst the cool evening breeze comes in through the door carrying with it the mosquitoes that bite your ankles whilst you're trying to say 'mgonjwa'.

the teacher is a rwandan who speaks english, french, kinyarwanda and kiswahili and maybe even some other languages... and then they will tell you that they are 'bilingual' - only counting english and french as languages and not mentioning that they also speak seven african languages on the side...

so the first class we started with the numbers, weekdays, months (I particularly like septemba, octoba, novemba and desemba - sounds like rude-boy language to me ;-)) - and as we were getting started I started wondering about how I had learnt all my other languages; where do you normally start. it's such a complex thing to learn a language. I also started wondering how on earth they had managed to teach all of us how to read and write... I don't remember and find it highly fascinating that these funny looking symbols can actually mean anything to you. I feel like that with kiswahili still - I hear it and think - and that means something? people actually understand this?

in our second class he started writing out fractions on the blackboard 1/2, 1/3, 1/4, 1/5, 1/6, 1/7, 1/8 - that's where I had to intervene and asked him if we could maybe start with conversation; I didn't feel like getting into logarhythms in kiswahili before I couldn't say 'good morning, how are you?'. so we left the fractions behind and got on with conversation. the teaching style is erratic and it takes the entire two hours to get through a conversation of 10 lines. I get edgy and last night I stopped him in his tracks as he was going off on another tangent which had started with him trying to explain what the word 'pole' means (there is no translation; it came in a sentence which is an expression you use) but we then talked about 'pole pole' which means slowly slowly, or little by little from where we moved on to how to say 'this is good' and 'this is bad' (ni nzuri - si nzuri). generally the classes are rather disorganised and between the oral tradition of african culture and the lack of a list of vocabulary and more to structure the class than a piece of paper with elementary conversations consisting to a large extent of 'how are you?' 'how was your morning?' 'how are your classes?' 'how is your teacher?' we get stuck on stuff a lot. and it's not always easy for a queen of impatience like me to sit still and hold my tongue... I am also eager to start talking full sentences rather than learning words and saying 'I am fine, thank you teacher' or 'my mother is sick' 25 times in one hour. and if I have to hear 'c'est pas complique' and 'pas de probleme, n'est-ce pas?' 'aahhm' one more time...

so here we go with another lesson in patience... the neverending lesson of my life!