July 4th, 2012 
Emily 
In kiswahili class, we read a children’s book to practice our skills. I’m not sure which was harder: understanding the vocabulary, or understanding the cultural context.
Here is my translated summary of the story:
The lion is getting old and he wants to see his daughter married before he dies. (This part was very confusing for us. Why does he care? How old is he?)
So he calls all the animals in the jungle to a meeting. He tells them that his daughter must get married, and he asks that each animal say why it would be the best match for his daughter.
(Why did he call ALL the animals? A lioness can’t marry a zebra, can she?)
Simba calls all the animals to a meeting.
Each animal, from shark to peacock, says why he would be the best match.
(There are no sharks in the jungle. There are also no peacocks in the jungle.)
WHY ARE THERE PEACOCKS IN THE JUNGLE!?
In the end, the lioness decides that she wants to marry the cat because he is fun to play with and he is calm and won’t beat her.
(For real, it says that she wants to marry him because he won’t beat her. I assume they live happily ever after, although this is left unstated.)
Lioness + cat = true love forever
The end.
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LOL! Of course the father wants to see his daughter married. In most cultures, Fathers have always wanted to get their daughters married off, hopefully to some rich guy who would keep her fed and pregnant and raise the social standing of the whole family. As for the shark and the peacock, well, it’s a children’s book so a little imagination is okay. Although there is some symbolism to explore even in that. It’s nice to think that when we grow up we can marry anyone we want to, but we all know that is not true. The sad part is that the daughter felt she had to choose the one least likely to beat her. Yikes! I’ve turned a simple children’s book into a political platform. (sigh)
Haha, I think it means that you should start writing children’s books now!
Really funny. I agree about the picture book reflecting the culture–my friend’s family lived in Sri Lanka for a year, and they bought a picture book for their toddler that was about animals traveling on a cruise ship. On the third page of the book, the ship sank and all the animals died. But then they were reincarnated! Turns out the book was all about reincarnation.
Also, your Kenya adventures really make me want to watch The Lion King again.
I’m at least glad to hear that the animals were reincarnated. Otherwise, it would have been such a depressing children’s book.
Also, I wish I was in Providence so we could watch The Lion King together. Maybe you can peel Josh away from his video games and make him watch it with you.