Jambo!

I am so fortunate to be back in such a wonderful country that means so much. I am loving this trip as much as my other. Though they are different, there are still so many similarities. The accommodations for the Lutheran Junior Seminary are pretty much the same; instead of just one big room with a bathroom, there is a small common room with a small bedroom and the bathroom.  The seminary is near the base of some mountains so there a beautiful view. As the clouds clear over the peaks and the sun shines upon them, it is truly a wondrous sight. Our first day on site, we were free to explore the grounds and we later went on a group walk to take some of it all in. 

Today was our first day of Swahili class. Our instructor Chuma began with telling us a couple of theories about the origins of the language which was pretty interesting. Swahili is a Bantu language and uses 15 of the 22 possible noun groups for Bantu languages. We started with learning the first eleven of them. We followed that with different forms of greetings, which in Tanzanian culture is extremely important because they greet people they know, as well as strangers. We also learned how to say what are name is and that we are American, responses to questions that maybe quite frequent. We also went over some other nouns and how to form the nouns and sentences. In the afternoon, we were split into groups of four to get more individualized practice in the conversation of the information we learned in the morning. After class, we walked to a nearby orphanage to play with the children. I could tell we were enjoying it and having as much fun as the children. I know everyone cannot wait to go back and bring along the donations next time. After supper, we had another choir practice. We  pretty pleased with how we are doing.  Until next time.