Mrs. Communication

One thing about Kenya that becomes really frustrating is that fact that though most people speak “English” you are never speaking the same language. In a conversation you find yourself dropping pronouns and other useless parts of speech to try and make communication easier. Though this seems to only make things worse, and combined with the slang (or shang in Swahili, yes that’s right they have a slang word for slang) version of Swahili/English you end up never understanding what anyone is saying. I ask a matatu( small bus) driver “is it all right if I sit in front” he says “yes is going to tao( shang for town)”. This was not actually my question but it was helpful nonetheless. The problem I think is not that they don’t understand this word or that word in English, but more that I am speaking a whole lot faster than everyone else. Kenyan speech is extremely slow and vague, so that it will take 5 minutes for a question to be answered and you’re still not sure about what the answer was but you certainly got a lot of information out of asking. This in the end makes the whole communication thing worth it. Oh and the concept of sarcasm is also something very hard to convey. My host mother will ask how my day is and I will say “oh it was good but I wish it could have been warmer”. She will give me a look like I am crazy and I will explain that I was kidding. The kids at my home stay are teaching me Swahili, for now I can say thank you’ and the word that means Forener which I hear 50 times a day. It is Muzungu. Though the older kids call me by my name, the youngest calls me Muzungu julie’s, which is just super cute. So for now I am content to just ask people to repeat everything they say and do the same when talking to anybody and everybody.