Mumbo Jumbo

I've only been here three days but at least I've been better than GBM, who was merrily chanting "mumbo-jumbo!" at everyone he passed, as he thought that was the general greeting. To be fair, I can understand why he would think that... the initial call is "hujambo", followed by "sijambo" in response, but all you hear are the last two syllables. Not exactly mumbo-jumbo, but close enough.

I don't know if you can really call it learning the language, so much as learning bits and pieces... but I'm trying to memorise phrases and words as a starting point. So, on my first morning in the serviced flat, armed with my Swahili phrase book, I greeted the maid on arrival. 

I started with hello... it seemed a safe enough bet... "Habari"  

"Hujambo?", she replied.

"Sijambo." I said, clearly very proud of my interaction thus far.

"Poa." She grinned and walked away. 

I frantically searched my Swahili-English, dictionary. Poh-ah... poh-ah... paaaao... nothing. Which lead me to conclude - true to my colonial heritage - that clearly, "Poa" was not a word and therefore it must be our maid's name. 

Fortunately later that same day, I did come across the word - which turned out to mean "cool". Good thing I didn't call Helen (apparently) Poa, with immediate enthusiasm! 

It's not all misunderstandings though, I'm already confident enough to direct taxi and bajaji drivers in Swahili, and once they get over the shock of my accent and/or poor pronunciation they seem to welcome my bumbling attempts. 

Helen also finds me more than a little amusing, as she chases me around the flat mopping over and under my feet, instructing me in Swahili where to stand or sit so that I can inconvenience her to the least degree.

Now if I could just get my brain around all those zeroes on those damn shilingi notes...