Don't know Swahili? No problem, we can still laugh together :)

This was their weapon in the game which they tried using on me also :)

As I promised, here is another photo-post on the children of Zanzibar...

Its weekend time so just enjoy at the images...more descriptive posts coming up later :)

I spend quite sometime with the kids in the images below. None of them English and I knew no Swahili either, so it was only through gestures and sounds that I could try! I am not sure if I conveyed anything beyond my name and country (India is well known there), everything else I said or tried saying sent them all into fits of laughter :)

Candidly captured while she was busy laughing...

I loved how she opened up so easily to me - in fact they even allowed me to sit with them and see their writing :)

The bunch!

What is Swahili?

The Swahili language or Kiswahili is a Bantu language and the mother tongue of the Swahili people. It is spoken by various communities inhabiting the African Great Lakes region and other parts of Southeast Africa, including Tanzania, Kenya, Uganda, Rwanda, Burundi, Mozambique and the Democratic Republic of Congo (Ref: Wikipedia).

As I was in Tanzania it was the language everyone spoke, even though its not the mother tongue for all. I was quite impressed to even see Indians speak Swahili. My colleague Karoline from Norway had been in the country for over two years, and spoke Swahili fluently. I tried a bit and failed badly. However, I also learnt that if I come here more often and actually have to stay in the country for long, it might be a real good idea to pick up the language. Just like everywhere else, locals really appreciate when you speak to them in their native language, even if its broken.

The inhabitants at Zanzibar are quite a mix - Indians, Arabs, native Tanzanians to name the main groups. However, even here its Swahili that binds them all together, though almost all of them speak their own language also - not very uncommon to hear Gujarati or Arabic on the streets. Even the clothing reflects the diversity of people, but their common language binds them all together. In fact, people were very pleased when I told them that I was from India - Indians have maintained a good position, even though they are generally the richer, business class.