Tank bovu

Bad tank.

I learnt these words in response to the water supply crisis plaguing Dar es Salaam. With the sun beating down strongly, water for washing would be handy.

A government person stopped by the office as he was working with a colleague on something related to the national lion strategy. As is typical, he commented on my attempts to speak Swahili.

What is not typical is whether I can predict someone’s perception: either that I am shockingly poor or making great strides. It can go either way. This guy remarked that some people would be able to pick up a new language quicker than others. ‘Ladies and children are good with language as they have so many words per second’. A more backhanded compliment it would be hard to find. Apologies to the ladies of the world: you are not all incessant chatterboxes pumping out multiple words per second, as implied.