Marahaba

There’s a young lad of around 12 years old, possibly the landlady’s grandson, who greets me with marahaba when I enter the compound. This is a polite response in Swahili, usually a response to the greeting shikamoo. Together they mean:

Shikamoo (spoken by a younger person or, according to translation websites, by ‘an inferior to a superior’ (major yuck)), literally translates to ‘touching your leg’ (hilarious) or ‘to fall at one’s feet’.

Marahaba (the response of the ‘superior’) I’ve seen translated as ‘I accept your respect’. But actually I don’t believe there is a formal translation and it’s simply stated as the response to shikamoo.

It’s not normal for a child to say marahaba to an adult so I asked Dennis to shed some light. His hypothesis was that the boy is taking the piss, knowing I’m a clueless foreigner. Fair play.

We’re struggling in the office to break for lunch some days, so there’s a reliance on back-up Cup-a-Soups, which I’ve found in the supermarket here (at about four times the price). Plus mountains of black coffee.