Poa – cool
Pole (po -lay) – sorry
Pole Pole – careful / slowly!
Sawa – ok?!
Sawa is the Kenyan equivalent to the Canadian “Eh!” and is basically added on to the end of most sentences. It is hard to avoid this one. I even find myself using “sawa” in text messages and emails.
A verb used by Kenyans a lot is “imagine”. Or you might just say the word “imagine” if someone is explaining something to you. John Lennon would be proud.
Top 3 things that I talk about on this blog:
I have another friend visiting. This time it is Desmond taking time off from his copywriting job in Toronto to come check out Kenya for 10 days before heading back to Canada via a stopover in Amsterdam. He did very well on his own those first couple of days while I was up Mount Kenya. He took a matatu, didn't get robbed, saw the Giraffe Centre, walked around the city, went to a bar and got drunk with another Canadian he met, visited a school, and observed that Kenyans don't smile very much. It's true but you have to talk to them first and then they will smile. They may seem standoffish initially but once you ask them something they will be almost overly friendly and go out of their way to help you out.
I think Dez is going to Maasai Mara this week and we are trying to find him a cheap ticket to Lamu as well. I think if you do one thing in Kenya – you should go to the Maasai Mara. And if you do two, the second should be to see Lamu.
Hakuna Matata. You have no idea how often this song from the Lion King is stuck in my head. I still find the song very cheesy and irritating but you have to adopt the attitude of it's meaning in order to survive in Kenya. In case you don't know, it means “no worries” in Swahili. People here say it with a shrug and a smile when something that should be frustrating happens. This is a good approach because so many potentially frustrating things happen here that you have to shrug most of them off. Although I keep thinking about how unsuccessful George and his “serenity now” mantra was in Seinfeld and worry that my “hakuna matatas” will eventually lead to a complete flip out. Only time will tell.
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