It’s Ramadan! Invite me for iftar? I already have the shoes #CROCS
spirituality & faith, musings & reflections Bernie Mshana spirituality & faith, musings & reflections Bernie Mshana

It’s Ramadan! Invite me for iftar? I already have the shoes #CROCS

….because I’m a grown woman (lol! deep down I really do wish someone would buy me a dress for Eid lol!), I'm settling for these new crocs. You can also shop the Crocs Ramadan collection at #Footsteps, and then we can be twinning and iftar hopping in style lol! JK JK - but seriously, get the #crocs.

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On a daladala in Dar es Salaam
musings & reflections Bernie Mshana musings & reflections Bernie Mshana

On a daladala in Dar es Salaam

“Pee peeep!” The bus honks to the vendors who have placed their magunia with madera and jelojelo products. It finally comes to a stop right in front of me and I hop on before the many people who have been waiting for a bus to town start fighting for a seat. “Ta ta ta!”-the sound of my shoes in motion as my feet meet the rusty iron of the Tegeta-Kkoo bus. I head straight to the empty seat at the back. I slide in as fast as I can because, a second delay and I am one of the people standing back to back from Tegeta to Kariakoo.

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Confessions of a bilingual orator
musings & reflections Bernie Mshana musings & reflections Bernie Mshana

Confessions of a bilingual orator

I am what you would call a bilingual orator.  A two-language speaker. The two languages I speak find individual chambers in which to stay in my brain without mixing, but the two depend on each other and form one whole language with which I speak, with which I exist.

My spirit, it speaks Swahili. I learned my Catechism in Swahili. I can only communicate with God in this language, because it is the language through which I was introduced to Him. Do not ask me to pray in English. I can try, but chances are I will fail miserably. I simply do not know how to. I have heard what other people say when they say prayers in English, and they are no different from my Swahili prayers. But I, I can never say those words to God in English and mean them the same way as I would in Swahili.

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