Juma Tano (Wednesday): Swahili Day 4

The kids playing with donated toys

Our fourth day of Swahili went a little better than the last. We still learned a bunch of vocabulary words, but they were the ones we requested to know--not just what the book had for us to learn. Most of the ones we asked for were fruit to find out what all they have available here as well as others, like sorry and please, that would have been useful to know sooner. The afternoon session was reserved for cultural “do’s and don’ts.” Chuma, our teacher, gave us a bunch of pointers on how to appropriately behave in the Tanzanian culture, like how to behave  as a guest and to stay away from American jokes. We also learned a lot about the marriage customs here. It seems like a really long, formal process in which the man has to tell his parents he has seen a girl he would like to marry before anything else starts. Then they bring in a “middleman” to go between the two families and get things worked out before the girl is even asked. Once the dowry is paid though, they are pretty much married, only the religious part of the wedding remains.
We went to the orphanage again today and brought more of the donations for the kids. They loved it! There were books and stuffed animals were spread all over. Some of us even got involved with a game the older girls were playing. It was lots of fun and the kids definitely enjoy having us visit.

Sydney and Michael with the kids