Kilimanjaro Journey : Makoko Language School

First week of Kiswahili School. First of all, I need you to understand that I may no longer make sense even in English! During these early learning weeks I may not spell things correctly or place words in proper order no matter what language. This process is very intense and after the first week I feel like I have swum the English Chanel. A fellow student corrected me that we are currently swimming the Kiswahili Chanel! We are tired!

This is my new room for the next several months. It is simple but clean. I have my own room and we live above our classrooms. There are eighteen in our entire class but we are broken up into smaller learning groups. I have three in my group and I enjoy their company on this venture. Being in a small group learning is very intense and one on one. Our teachers very in ages and gender. Each period is about 40mins in length.

1. Conversation ~ Mazungumzo

2. Story ~ Hadithi

3. Grammer ~ Sarufi

Chai Break

4. Exercise ~ Mazoezi

5. Exercise ~ Mazoezi

Lunch

Rest Hour

6. Language Lab

Our teachers rotate between each group so that we hear how different people speak and various tribal dialects. Over all I am very impressed with the school and the approach to learning. Already in the first week so much more of the language makes sense. I have a little advantage for the rest of my classmates do not have as much experience with being in the country. I enjoy my new friends and I really like being in Musoma. It is a nice village and people are kind. The school is well known in the area and Tanzanians enjoy assisting us with learning our Kiswahili. There are a total of 12 noun classes and we learned the first class this week. Words are broken up into classes to show singular/plural and rules are in connection with which class it is in. No beginner vocab we jumped right in!