Spice Farm Fieldtrip

So our fieldtrip was AWESOME!  Actually today has been awesome!  Everyone who is taking a Kiswahili for Foreigners course (no matter what level) goes on the fieldtrips.  That meant I got to see my friends from Boston University, as well as meet some new folks who are here learning the language for various reasons and for various amounts of time.  All friendly and fun to be around.

They split us into two groups- Beginners and Good.  Haha. I was, of course, in the beginner group, which meant our tour was in English- or more like what I call Swenglish.  I took lots of pictures and did my best to spell the Kiswahili words they were telling us.  I have already made a date with my Kiswahili-English dictionary later tonight so I can figure out how to correctly spell them. 

We got to taste all the fruits and spices and the orange was definitely my favorite!  Don’t ask me what it is in Swahili, though.  I will let you know after my study session tonight!  After hearing the name of a hundred fruits and spices, they all kind of blend together :)

I even got a picture with tangawizi!  It was a must.

After the fieldtrip, we got to go home to study rather than continue class for two more hours.  That was GREAT news to me because I’m still not feeling well.  Prayers for my health would be greatly appreciated!  Missing even one day of class would be very hard to catch up on! 

Usually after class, I catch the “509 to Chukwani” by myself, but today, my two classmates, Chad and Jamie, came with me!  They live near me but had never experienced the dala dala.  It was probably my favorite dala experience thus far!  We actually had people talking to us and they were impressed with our Kiswahili! (Or they atleast appeared to be impressed.  They totally could have been making fun of us – actually that is quite possible.)

I get off the dala dala at the street and then walk a little bit to my house every day.  Usually I see cows, chickens, and trash- but no people.  Today, I ran into some little kids and I started greeting them in Swahili.  They didn’t expect me to be able to speak to them and it was pretty funny to see their faces.  I’m pretty sure they are never going to leave me alone now.

Thank you, Lord, for all these new friends!