Jambo Means Hello

Prior to my trip my mother asked if I had practised any Swahili. I replied with "Jambo means hello," little did she know I picked up that tidbit years ago thanks to a book my Auntie had entitled Jambo Means Hello! We used to read it all the time when we went camping. Of course my Swahili knowledge goes further than that; on my first day one of the local volunteers asked me if I knew what "rafiki" meant and I replied without missing a beat. He wanted to know how I knew- my reply? "I've seen The Lion King!" It is also to thank for my understanding of Simba  (lion), Asante Sana (thank you very much) and of course Hakuna Matata (no worries/problem). I'd  like to think I was off to a good start!
Feeling exhausted, my would have been power nap turned into a full blown nap going through both lunch and siesta time. I got up and ready in time for our first official Swahili lesson.
During our first lesson we covered basics for self-introduction. By the end of it we needed to recite our names, where we are from, our nationality, where our  placement is and our volunteer role. It was pretty good.  I'm finding Swahili a lot easier than Thai. I'll keep you posted, sawa?
(Sawa? Means okay? And then you say "sawa," which means okay.)