Swahili Lessons--Melanie Hardacker

As we have been preparing for our trip our group has been meeting regularly. Mwende has spent time teaching us some of the language and a couple songs. Here are some of the words we are trying to learn before we go:

Jambo--Hello
Chakula--food
maji--water
Tafadhali--please
Kwaheri--goodbye
Jina langu ni--My name is
Bwana asifiwe-Praise the Lord
Psa ngapi-How much is
Asante-Thank you
Pole-sorry
And in case it isn't obvious enough: mimi ni mgeni--I am a visitor

Swahili is basically a phonetic language with similar sounds to English so you just have to sound the words out. The main thing to remember is the vowel sounds:
A-ah
E-eh
I-Long E
O-Long O
U-ooo (short u)

So use those vowel sounds with normal consonant sounds and you can make those words all happen.

Our family has been practicing the songs quite a bit this summer. At first they feel like tongue twisters but now that we have the rhythm it is starting to come together.

Song one is "God is so Good". Of course there is a twist on the tune that I keep forgetting but the first part is the traditional tune.

Mungu yu mwema, mungu yu mwema, mungu yu mwema yu mwema kwangu.
God is so good, God is so good, God is so good he's so good to me.

The other song goes "Jesus is mine He is Lord forever". African songs are very repetitive so you just repeat that verse over and over with variations on the tune or just the ending "He is Lord Forever". And usually you are repeating what someone else sang so theoretically it is just about following along.
"Yesu ni wangu wa uzima wa milele".

OK no problem now sing it fast and in tune. :) Now that I have it I am enjoying learning to praise God in a new and fun way. I am falling in love with the African music we have heard and really look forward to this aspect of the trip.

Here are a couple versions of Yesu Ni Wangu I found on YouTube.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KNEy3oDt4fo

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Tmdu_iShL5s