Habari zako!

...means: "How are you?" in Swahili!
This is one of the five pages of Swahili words I picked up from a few of the Semei Kakungulu (secondary school) girls today after a visit to the hostel/dorm on the high school campus where some of them live.  The girls who taught me were a mixture of those from Nairobi, Kenya, who speak it as their mother tongue, and other girls who had picked it up from interacting with the Kenyan students.  Swahili is spoken widely in Kenya and used in schools there, but in Uganda it is mainly used as the language of the military, with local languages serving as the mother tongue of most and English as the language of education.

There is a small but solid number of students from Kenya at SK--some Jewish, some not--who have come over to be part of the community  and others who have come simply for a better education.  I wasn't exactly clear on how all of them found this school, but I should soon find out--the girls' hostel is a lot of fun so I'll definitely go back, and a few of them have already happily agreed to be interviewed!
I took my second peek into a yeshiva class this morning, wherein we discussed this week's Torah portion, Balak.  It was a lively discussion (if somewhat basic) that was also joined by the bar mitvah family.  Unfortunately, it was cut short as the rabbi is embroiled once again in the final stages of his election-contesting court case.

Otherwise, the day proved standard--some more spelling, more Hebrew (we soldier on with the Hebrew months, which are taking longer than I had anticipated).  On my way home from Hadassah, it started pouring, and as is standard procedure in the village, I ducked under the nearest awning, to the delight of some wide-eyed kids who couldn't get enough of a muzungu.  The mother eventually realized I was there and invited me in, and we had a nice get-to-know-you chat before the sun came out and I made my way home.