Fabric!!

My first khanga.  This one says something about not blaming God if bad things happen.

African fabrics are awesome.  Lots of color, cool designs, and the fabric is tough (so it can withstand the rough washing by hand).  There are a few different kinds.  Kitenge is the main kind of fabric that is used to make clothes for women.  This includes Sunday best, teaching outfits, and general every day wear.  Khanga is thinner, meant to be worn around the house, and is something that women usually just wrap around their bottom halves.  Khanga also have sayings written on the bottom in Kiswahili.  Many of them have something to do with peace or God, but you have to be careful to keep an eye out for the ones that may get you in trouble.  Which leads to the story of this particular blog post.

            Our first week or so in country was spent in the city of Dar es Salaam, but we were not allowed to leave the Smbazi center, where our first several trainings were held.  When we took a trip into the actual city, all us girls were on a mission to finally get khangas at long last.  We of course had no idea what the Kiswahili meant, but were completely and utterly entranced by all the colors and patterns.  Many of us just bought khangas without finding out what was written at the bottom.

            After making our first of many fabric purchases, we swarmed our Tanzanian guides in order to find out what the heck the fun-sounding words actually meant.  One of the homestay coordinators name Jumapili patiently translated for us.  When he got to the beautiful red and gold khanga that Steph had just purchased, he paused for a long time.  He glanced at her, back at the words, and then said haltingly: “This is a good khanga for when a member of your family passes away.  You should not wear this around your homestay family.  Let’s go get a different one.”

            Fortunately the vendor was willing to let Steph trade for a different one with a happier message (something about God, undoubtedly), but all of us are now much more conscience of what our khangas say!