Umeolewa?

I've been going to the Tanga museum, where the former Stehmann House assistant has been finalizing the closure of the orphanage, on an almost daily basis. The girls continue to stop here after school to check in and talk to Joel and Vera about any issues that they are faced with. These afternoons are lovely and quiet. Set at the end of a dusty road lined with trees, the Tanga museum is a traditional building with huge arches welcoming guests through its open lower corridors. Usually I'll bring some pencil crayons or supplies for friendship bracelets and we'll all sit around and fumble in a broken mixture of English and Kiswahili. There is a family of monkeys who often play in the trees and scamper around the grounds while we sit on the open tile floor.

On Friday, after growing tired of the crafts, the girls found an old local newspaper and began to rifle through it. Asma called me over to read parts of it in Kiswahili to me, and then to translate into English. She pointed out "The best singer of Tanzania" to me - Soggy Doggy - and asked if I listened to this so-called "Soggy Doggy" in Canada. Nope. Asma continued to rattle on about other figures in the Entertainment section, Miss Tanzania 2007, her friend, her husband, etc. Adorable and polite, Rachael interrupted to ask me, "Sister Kaitlin, Umeolewa?"

I paused to think about this.... her question sounded exactly like "Umelewa?" which means "Are you understanding?" That letter "O" was in exactly the place that a subject infix would go. I'm pretty rusty on those yet, so I figured she was just asking if I understood all this rambling that Asma was continuing with. I answered, "Kidogo" - a little.

All the girls burst out laughing. Asma keeled over, nearly falling off the chair and holding her stomach with laughter.

"Kidogo?! Sister Kaitlin, ume-O-lewa?!"

"Sijui 'Olewa'" I resigned.

"Sister Kaitiln, are you Marry?"

I answered "bado," which means 'not yet,' but the girls were still in hysterics over my original answer. So sure, I'm a little bit married.