Language, Mango Mama and Assimilation

As Canadians we tend to think of ourselves as privileged and fortunate. Although this is true in a very broad sense I fear I must say I feel terribly disadvantaged. I speak English, make a hack job of French and dabble in Spanish and Swahili. It’s sad and perhaps this is my fault for not taking greater initiative. Yesterday I was hanging out with some friends who speak 6 languages – fluently. On the other side of the world it is a given that you speak multiple languages. I think the fact that we are born into English and seem to think it is the only language truly necessary in the world is unfortunate and rather embarrassing. I wish the brain pathways to learn languages easily were created in me at young age but I am not so lucky. I must try harder to master other languages.
We have met a mama who I have dubbed “Mango Mama” because she convinced us to buy her mangos one day by saying that if we buy her mangos the watoto (children) will be able to eat. How can you refuse that? Okay so we bought two mangos and they were delicious! We have run into her twice around town since then and continue to say, “hey, Mango Mama” and then we buy two more mangos.
In other news…I am assimilating. For better or worse this happens to me quite easily. Yesterday I was talking with an English couple, informing them of my friends’ biogas company and said the following, “the company is also run by a mzungu.”At that everyone burst out laughing, as I had said it as if I were not a mzungu myself! The Tanzanian mama clapped my hand and said “good job!”
In another instance I have caused a good laugh when sounding, “ah ah!” in the car to stop someone from going past the driveway. This “ah ah!” was in place of saying something to the effect of “no, this is the drive right here.”