WHY I AM GOING TO KENYA (again) #3

A couple of days ago Pastor Joel sent me a series of photos of the windows and doors that now have been made for the dormitory. Again, little by little the building is coming along.

When I arrive in Kisii and talk to everyone, I will have a much clearer picture of what actually is left for the completion. It cannot be much: Plastering, finish the floor, screens on the windows.

Another thing that Joel mentioned is that they need to make the velandah. I did not know what a velandah was, so I asked him. He told me that it is putting a hard floor on the outside around the perimeter of the building.

This makes sense to me, since water running off the roof would otherwise make it constant mud around the outside.
As I thought about that word velandah, I wondered if it is not a Swahili-fied version of the English

word veranda, which of course is what we call a porch. I sat many evenings on my veranda in India years ago.

I have tried to begin to learn Swahili over the past few months, and since Kenya is a former English colony, there are many influences in language.

For instance, the English have the habit of beginning a comment by saying, “I say…”

I have been told that the Swahili language has also incorporated this into their language, and often begin a sentence in the Swahilified version of “I say…”

I’m not sure how it would be spelled, and the pronunciation is changed enough so that unless you were aware of this fact, you may miss what was said.

Interesting to me. Perhaps not so much to you.

Anyway, I am en-route, at the moment.