The time spent in the language school I consider to be one of the best times of my life. Great students, great stuff, lovely school setup and infrastructure, allowing as, freshmen, to enter Tanzania and African reality gradually, step by step. Kind of an incubator maturing a greenhorn into someone who may go and feel bit more confident dealing the surrounding reality and African society.
I wish to pay my respect to the late director of the school, Rev. Fr. Joseph Reinhart, Maryknoll missioner, whom I loved and still love deeply. Such a great man, noble, with a subtle sense of humor and friendly in his special way...
I wrote a lot about the school reality in my autobiography 'Między Taborem a Golgotą' so I do not see a point of repeating myself. Still, for English speaking readers of my blog, just a few thoughts about my fondness of the school and kiswahili language...
I owe Maryknoll Language School (now - after Maryknoll Society handed over the school to the Diocese at the break of Third Millenium - renamed to Makoko Language School; by the way, I was the chairman of the committee supervising the handover process) my love to kiswahili language and the urge to know it and feel it the best I can... I believe that if you love people you live with and serve, you will do your best to know and love their language as well... And this is what drove me throughout all these years after I left the school - trying to feel the language, understand it, think in kiswahili, express myself in correct kiswahili, go with flow of the progress of the language as it grows and matures and changes alongside the society that becomes more and more modern and connected to the global village...
A few years ago I wanted to to do the licence and doctorate in kiswahili, started even the process of entering the Open University of Tanzania masters program, but spent all the money given to me by a close friend of mine, who sponsored this dream - for the construction of the John Paul II Center for Education and Formation, thinking that this is more important than putting a PhD behind my surname...
Then another friend of mine, a priest of Diocese of Musoma and a teacher by profession, told me that I do not need to do this Open University as my knowledge and feeling of kiswahili is better than many of native speakers, including those with PhD... That was, I must admit, a very nice compliment...
So, I decided to accompany kiswahili as it grows and changes... Going through dictionaries, language books, proverbs, sayings, Swahili culture (kiswahili is the name of the language, Swahili is the whole culture based on kiswahili language in East Africa, especially at the coast areas and the islands)... Listening to TV kiswahili programs, noticing minute changes in ways of expressing ideas and thoughts, new words etc... This is a fascinating experience as the language is a living thing and changes on daily basis reflecting the world and the society which uses it to express itself and to communicate, keeping record of the reality as well in writing...
Karibuni, Tanzania! Karibuni, Kiabakari! Mjisikie nyumbani!
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