Kiswahili wiki moja

I've finished my first week of Swahili lessons this week - 28 hours of learning. My head is still spinning a little with all the new words. Yesterday afternoon I sat down and made flash cards for all the vocab we've had this week. Some of it I knew from my feeble attempt to learn Swahili last year. 

Day one and two were a breeze. Lots of energy and ready to learn. It feels like the vocab we were introduced to on days three and four isn't quite sinking in as fast. Hopefully a few hours of quizzing myself this weekend will mean I'm ready to go on Monday for week two. We end each week with a field trip. Yesterday we went to one of the markets in Dar es Salaam which is known for its clothing. Loads and loads of second-hand clothes from Europe and North America ends in markets this these. I wasn't so interested in the clothes but quickly found myself in the fabric section where vendors are selling both finished clothes and fabric. I couldn't help myself at one of the stalls selling bolts of batik, and ended up bringing home 3 meters of a nice blue and brown batik. I'm thinking some pillow cases for the blue guest room and maybe a new cover for the cushions on my veranda furniture. I also also saw some nice vitenge material (although the one I liked most was imported from Nigeria and only sold in 3 x 4 meters which is a little excessive as I'm not quite sure what to do with all that fabric) so I didn't get it.

 

I did pick up a  little present for my pops who decided that funding my Kiswahili lessons was a great Christmas present. Thanks Dad! Let's see when I make it to the post office. (Ruining the surprise a bit with this photo - but it's always nice to have something to look forward to.)

And in my week of Swahili immersion, I also decided that I would buy this painting done by a talented Tanzanian guy who goes by the name Minzi. He's had a bunch of paintings on display at my favourite coffee spot here in Dar and they've been disappearing so I figured how was the right time. I love the way he combines bits of fabric which are symbolic of Tanzanian culture in the paintings. Now I just need to get my hammer out and get some nails in the wall so it can hang straight!