Riverside Swahili School

When Robyn and I first knew we were going to move to Tanzania, we decided to get the Rosetta Stone computer software program to learn some Swahili. Learning a bit of the language before hand would make the transition easier (how little did we know what was coming!!). We said we were going to practice three times a week. Well, three times a week rapidly declined into 3 times a month, and we showed up on Tanzania’s dirty doorstep (Dar) knowing how to say really useful things like the dog under the table and man and woman are walking. Since then, we’ve picked up some more practical bits and pieces and we were managing to get around on the dalas, give a cabby directions and buy fruit and vegetables the market, but that was about it.

At the end of June, knowing that the following two weeks were going to be slow at work, Robyn and I made plans to go to a Swahili school recommended by my Swiss co-worker. The language school is run by Tanzanians teachers and is affiliated with the Riverside Campsite, which located right on the Little Ruaha River about 20km outside Iringa. At $230/person/week for classes, 3 meals a day and a tented banda, the price was right and we were off on another journey. The experience was so refreshing, fun, enlightening that we decided to break this experience into a multi post blog on the surroundings, the people we met, and the trip home. This one pertains to the class stuff only.

The classes started at 8:10 am and went until 1:00PM, with a small chai (tea) break at 10:30AM. The teachers were used to teaching people who would be there least one month (missionary families stay for 4 months), so when Robyn and I showed up and said we wanted to learn as much as thy could cram into two week, they were kind of reluctant to accommodate us. This was a real problem at first-it wasn’t going to do us any good to take the first two weeks of a 4 month course. But after a couple of days realized that these Wamerikani (Americans) weren’t going to stop complaining and they gave in and adjusted.

I haven’t been to school in years and I guess my brain forgot what it was like to be pushed to its limit for 5 hours a day. I had a dull headache the whole time. I had so much stuff swimming around my head I could hear the water slosh. Regardless, I learned a ton. I hate to admit it, but Robyn rocked the house. She was a day or two ahead of me at all times. Even the teachers were impressed- asking her if she’d studied lingustics or something. I guess that that degree from Cornell might really mean something.

It was a great experience. Even though we had 5 teachers over ten days of class, all the teachers were great. They were friendly, patience, and knowledgeable. The patience is a necessary virtue, as they listen to foreigners butcher their native language 5 days a weeks, 50 weeks a year. I simply couldn’t do it without breaking multiple objects. So a big shout out to our teachers—Sayi, Mayi, Moshi, Ishmail, and Tunku. Extra props to Tunku, as he was the one who was stuck with us and taught us over the last four jam-packed days.

After two weeks at Riverside, I could proudly complete a 3rd grade level reading comprehension exercise and speak in simple sentences in past, present and future tenses! I still have a tough time understanding when a non-teacher speaks to me in Swahili, mostly because the words are slurred together and feel like they are coming at me at 100 mph. However, give me some time and practice, I will be an old pro.

Despite the obvious advantages of being able to function in the native language of the country I now live in, I think the best part about learning Swahili is that when Robyn and I are back in the States and we want to say something around other people and not have them know what we are talking about, we can bust out our sweet Swahili and say whatever we want. Slander in a foreign language—awesome!! Rafiki beware!