We are now living in Iringa, Tanzania for about 4 months, studying Swahili. Iringa is in southern Tanzania, about an 18 hour drive from Geita. We wanted to get away from Geita to study so we wouldn't be tempted to jump into the work right away before we could speak the language. That method of acquiring language tends to take a lot longer.
So, we've been in school for 2 weeks now, and we've already learned a lot. I've actually been pretty surprised at how quickly we can have conversations with people. Somewhat simple conversations, mind you, but communication nonetheless.
I thought you might be interested in what language school is like, so here is a typical day for us.
Breakfast - 7:00 - 8:00 am. (they cook all our meals for us, and they're actually quite good)
Class 1 - 8:00 - 10:00 am.
Tea Break - 10:00 - 10:30 am. (love that British influence)
Class 2 - 10:30 - 1:00 pm.
Lunch - 1:00 - 2:00 pm
The afternoons are completely free for us, but typically we do something like this:
2:00 - 4:30 - go running, read, play on the slack line, go swimming with the hippo, or drive the 20 minutes into town to check email
Homework and Swahili Study - 4:30 - 6:30
Dinner - 6:30 - 7:30 pm
Continue Studying, or if finished, watch a movie on the laptop or play cards - 7:30 - 9:30
If you're me, you generally are in bed by 10:00. If you're Brett, you generally stay up til 11:00 studying more b/c you didn't do it earlier or reading a magazine.
Anyway, that's a day. Weekends are a little different b/c we don't have class, but we don't really do anything that interest, so I won't try to talk about it. Some day I'll post pictures of the school so you can picture it better. That'll have to be after I get batteries for my camera, though....
One more important thing. You may have noticed the blog looks way better now that before, and that is due to the efforts of my ohso talented friend, Daisha, who volunteered to personalize our blog for us. The picture is of a road coming out of Geita. The people say there are 2 paved roads in Geita, but really it's just one that curves. Anyway, thanks so much to Daisha for her help!
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I dont reckon Swahili is near as easy as Pig Latin..that came pretty easy for me. We are keeping up with you guys through your blog and really enjoy the labor intensive pictures. The background picture is great too, so that we can see what you guys see on a daily basis. Im not sure that home grown honey would be worth suffering that alergic sing, but who am I to talk about danger..I ride a motorcyle!
ReplyDeleteGreat to hear another update and glad things are going well! A hearty "HanJambo!?" to the team! You should really take Pete swimming with you... even if he doesn't always get along with the hippo.
ReplyDeleteI might take a trip with Brian later this week and into next... this could be interesting... :0)
"Tea Break - 10:00 - 10:30 am. (love that British influence)"
ReplyDeleteI couldn't agree more. I firmly believe we should follow the Brit's example for a morning tea break, and the Italian/Spanish example of an afternoon siesta after lunch. Life would be much more civilized. ;)
I love reading about what y'all are up to! Maybe one day Sam and I will get over there.