The Muzungu Files

While the following statement is downright obvious, I would like to point out that the Congo jungle is mighty hot. That’s why, when we do distributions of household items to families, we create nice shady spots in villages. That is, assuming your trucks with said items make it to said shady spots. If they break down 500 meters down the road, all bests are off. So instead of roping off a nice little field area and doing this thing the right way, we just made everyone walk downs to the trucks and did it on the road (more aptly described as a jungle path). I’d like to say that this was “the fun way,” but alas, it was just a bit of a headache.

I did, however, get to practice some Swahili. Having gotten tired of the guys waiting on the sidelines trying to get my attention by hissing at me (this actually isn’t necessary impolite, though hard to get used to) and saying, “muzungu. muzungu. MUZUNGU!” (muzungu = white person) I decided that it was finally time to abandon my French and pull out the big guns. My colleague helped me translate something, and I read it a few times to get the pronunciation write. Then I took our megaphone, walked up to the guys and said. “Mwengine mutu mwenye ata ni ita muzungu hata pata tena kit.” This means “the next person that calls me muzungu is not getting a kit.” I added with a smile, “Assanti sana.” (Thank you).