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Communicating in SwahiliKatie Sandiford – Stouffville, ON There are a number of tasks during a day of distributing bedkits. The bedkits must be unloaded from the trucks, a location for taking the photographs must be selected, and the team must work together to move 550 children through the process of assembling for a photograph, hopefully getting a cheerful grin for the photo and moving towards two more stations headed by SCAW volunteers to collect their bedkit and mattress. Our team quickly learned techniques for getting our tasks completed in the most efficient way. However, it took a very important component to make our operation run like a well-oiled machine: communication with each other. Equally important was communicating with the children. However, the challenge with this was that they knew very few words in English, speaking mostly in their native tongue, Swahili. I readied myself for the distribution to Tanzania with a few Swahili phrases: jambo: hello, jo ka: sit here, mstari: make a line, jo hopa: come here, and most importantly when giving the bedkits, yako: It's yours! 
Setting up for a picture in front of the sample bedkit allowed us to become more familiar with the Swahili. The children were very eager to follow our directions. Asking one child to stand up, "si mama juu," often resulted in all of the children in the photo standing up and waiting for further directions. When the children were in place for their picture, one important phrase was used: checka, "Smile!" It often took a few tries but the children slowly began to shed some of their nervousness and anxiousness and would smile, showing their brilliant white teeth (and for some their adorable dimples). Although these words were enough to keep the distribution running smoothly, I wanted to communicate further with the children who looked nervous and anxious with this new experience. We wanted to make them feel at ease. Our team found a few tricks to bring smiles to the children while they were waiting in line for their photo. They enjoyed catching and tossing a beanbag or being shown how bubbles can be made out of a soap solution -- some even tried to catch the bubble before it disappeared. Others decided to practice the English at which they spend two school periods each day. Questions such as "What is your name?" and "How are you?" often received a quiet response in well-formed English. 
Some ways of communicating without using my limited and often mispronounced Swahili gave me the greatest joy. The children communicated their delight and excitement by waving to the Sleeping Children volunteers when we arrived at the schoolyard in the morning and when we departed in the afternoon. Their waving was accompanied by incredible smiles. It made my heart beat a little faster to know that they were pleased that we had come. The children also communicated with us through singing: either the Tanzanian national anthem, or their school song, or some other song they had prepared for us. Their voices and their appearance while singing was so beautiful that it touched my heart and we connected. I took away from this distribution the many, many smiles on the faces of children who have so little. Actions speak louder than words and sometimes a smile from a child is all that is needed. |
Team Reports