Swahili Baby Survival Guide

DISCLAIMER: I have been in Tanzania one week. Forgive me if I have got any of the below words or phrases wrong!

Before I came to Tanzania I tried to learn a little Swahili so that I would not feel completely lost here. It was my New Year's resolution to do an hour of practice every day. That lasted about two months before I gave up because it was just so hard not knowing how to pronounce things and not having anyone to try out my Swahili on. Of course by the time I actually left for Tanzania I had forgotten most of it.

When I got here I realised that I should have concentrated on words that you use with babies. So here for future reference (should anyone ever wish to go to a Swahili speaking orphanage) is the Swahili Baby Survival Guide.

Kulala - to sleep
Kula - to eat
Chakula - food
Maziwa - milk
Maji - water
Uji - porridge
Chafu - dirty
Acha - stop
Basi - enough
Asante - thank you
Unataka - you want
Nataka - I want

Then from these words you can make sentences. Unataka maziwa? (Do you want milk?)

Also, greetings are useful. If someone says "Mambo" to you, then you should reply with "Poa". If someone says "Habari?" (how are you?), you could reply with "Nzuri" (good) or "Nzuri sana" (very good). However, babies aren't exactly going to be saying these things so perhaps it's not necessary to include them right now.

Aside from those few words (plus a dozen or so random others), my Swahili is sadly lacking. Saffina (the Neema House cook) talked to me for a long time in Swahili today before she realised I had no idea what she was saying. I wasn't sure if it was the blank look on my face or that I was giving her inappropriate responses that alerted her to the fact!  I have only been here a week so far though, so hopefully it will improve with time. I will probably look back over this guide at the end of my time here and laugh at how simplistic it is!

Also, for the reference, names here are pronounced much differently to how we would at home. In Swahili the emphasis is put on the penultimate syllable. For example, the name Bryony is pronounced "Bree-OH-nee" here. I knew most of the babies names before I came here (just from looking at their pictures), but I have had to re-educate myself as to how to pronounce them!

Baby Bryony having kulala time

xoxo,

-Hannah