Learning to speak Chichewa

Chichewa is the language spoken in Malawi and having Geoffrey and Dorothy working not far from us has given me an interest in Malawi.

We see Geoffrey 6 days out of 7 every week when he walks to us to collect a bowl of food for his bosses parrot. He jokes that if we didn't share the food we make for our own birds then 'his' bird would go hungry as it is only we and he that think of feeding it. So much so, that on a Saturday he takes two days food so that he can quickly feed the bird on a Sunday morning before he goes off for the day. We don't mind and it is so little food compared to what we make up anyway, that it isn't missed.

With time Geoffrey has now decided to teach me Chichewa and in return I am teaching him Afrikaans. So far we have only learned 'pleasantries', but listening to his pronunciation is the key to speaking.

Each morning when I greet him at the gate I start with 'moni'...hello and when he has responded, I ask him how he is is...'muli bwanji'. The response to that is, 'ndiri bwino'....I am fine.  However if he or I are not fine but feeling sick, then our response should be 'ndikudwala'. Or if we are tired...'ndatopa'. Thank you is 'zikomo' and see you, goodbye...is 'tiwanana ndapeta'.

I'm glad Geoffrey has written all the phrases down for me so I can practise and every morning as I walk to the gate with the bowl of bird food in my hand I talk to myself and wait to see who will start our morning conversation first...will it be him or me?