We finished the ‘beginner’ Swahili textbook last week. What does that mean? Grammatically, we can now give reasons and explain consequences, use relative pronouns, describe things and people, include time references, make comparisons, and say things in both the active and passive voices. Conversationally, we can talk not just about […]
Shortly after we arrived in Tanzania, there was considerable violence in the Geita region between Muslims and Christians over who gets to butcher meat. Until recently, I’m told all abattoirs were Muslim run, so that they complied with halal food laws. However, Christians wanted to run their own because they […]
Cross Cultural Partnerships by Mary Lederleitner is quickly moving up my ‘to read’ list. It will be a valuable resource as we think about sustainability in student ministry but we are already faced with considerable ethical issues around money. Apart from beggars, sellers hassling us in town, and bargaining at […]
This is what a conversation in Swahili sounds like to me at the moment (translated into English): … … BUT … … SO … … BECAUSE … …
Banks in Tanzania feel familiar. They’re clean, sterile and quiet. The lady behind the counter wears a blue blouse. She types numbers into a keyboard. There are posters about customer service on the walls. They have that counter with all the different forms that you fill out before you see […]
Tolerate ambiguity. Reserve judgement. It’s not wrong, it’s just different. These are the phrases we repeat over and over to ourselves as we navigate culture adjustment. We’re working hard to ask questions rather than pronounce on things. Our default is to assume that things aren’t the way they seem to […]
Today we were introduced to vocab around marriage. In Swahili, there are different words for ‘to marry’ depending on whether you’re talking about a man or a woman. To simplify, you talk about a man being married in the active voice – he marries someone – but about a woman […]
Meet Jesus at uni 