San Diego safari
I cracked up this morning when I heard on the news that San Diego Zoo’s “Wild Animal Park” is going to change its name to the San Diego Zoo “Safari Park.” It’s hilarious to me because in Swahili a “safari” is a journey; sure, driving around looking at animals is technically a journey, but really [...]
Aterere in Star Wars
Here’s a bit of funny trivia for you: what language is the funny co-pilot speaking in this Star Wars clip? Surprise!! It’s Kikuyu, a language spoken in Kenya. I don’t understand what he’s saying, but after living in Kenya for a few years you can eventually distinguish between lots of languages… he apparently says something [...]
Chanting in a Dead Language
There’s some Ethiopian Orthodox holiday going on right now. Nobody’s explained it to me, but most of my Ethiopian colleagues have sworn off milk and meat until April, and there’s a man chanting over a loudspeaker in some church next to ILRI’s campus for hours at a time. I asked someone at lunch today what [...]
Niko Poa
I am realizing there is a problem with my Swahili: it’s too cool. Niko juu tu sana (I’m just too high up). It’s probably something that most Kenyan youths experience when talking to parents, teachers, or other adults in their lives. When I was living in Tala my limited interactions with adults were usually conducted [...]
Lover of Linux, death metal and Indian food, blogs about living and working in Nairobi, Kenya.