Wash your hands, wash the dishes, wash your clothes, wash yourself & I’m washing my hands after going to the washroom.
Nothing expresses the importance of water better than all the different verbs Swahili has for the different acts of washing.
kunawa mikono [washing hands ] kuosha viombo [washing dishes]
kufua nguo [washing clothes] kuoga [washing oneself]
kuchamba [washing your hands after going to the toilet]
ku- is like to- so if I say to wash hands I say ku-nawa mikono (where the «-» is just for better understanding. Also it’s similar to the «-ing» form in English hence the translations above.
To understand the importance of water you should also watch people working with water from clean, which is used for your body, to later being used to wash your car.
As long as water is still in a vessel it will be used to do something with it.
For example,
You will wash your hands and the water will be caught by a bowl so it doesn’t spill on the floor. Then that water will be used to wash something else inside the bowl. In the end it will be used to water the plants outside in the backyard.
Now we think we’re saving water because we have a special button for short flushes for our toilet. But saving water here in Tanzania is second nature to the people. They don’t even think about it. It’s a natural way of living.
Hope that helped,
Joel
Nothing expresses the importance of water better than all the different verbs Swahili has for the different acts of washing.
kunawa mikono [washing hands ] kuosha viombo [washing dishes]
kufua nguo [washing clothes] kuoga [washing oneself]
kuchamba [washing your hands after going to the toilet]
ku- is like to- so if I say to wash hands I say ku-nawa mikono (where the «-» is just for better understanding. Also it’s similar to the «-ing» form in English hence the translations above.
To understand the importance of water you should also watch people working with water from clean, which is used for your body, to later being used to wash your car.
As long as water is still in a vessel it will be used to do something with it.
For example,
You will wash your hands and the water will be caught by a bowl so it doesn’t spill on the floor. Then that water will be used to wash something else inside the bowl. In the end it will be used to water the plants outside in the backyard.
Now we think we’re saving water because we have a special button for short flushes for our toilet. But saving water here in Tanzania is second nature to the people. They don’t even think about it. It’s a natural way of living.
Hope that helped,
Joel