In Kenya, and I’m sure other countries in Africa, when people meet other people they greet everyone in the group at once. For instance, if some people and I were talking to a person and then someone new came up that knew one of the people; the new person will greet not only the person that he knows, but everyone in the group. This means that I have been doing a lot of hand-shaking and telling people my name since I have been here. This is where the title comes from. It turns out that in Kiswahili Jana (with one N) means yesterday. When I tell people my name and they speak Kiswahili they say, after some confusion, “Oh, jana, like yesterday”. I’ve heard that many times now. I can’t just always say “Hi, my name is Janna, like yesterday” because not everyone is from Kenya or the surrounding countries that speak Kiswahili. If I said that to some one from Malawi, they would look it me with a weird look and think I was crazy. I just wait for them to react, or just say ok and still not really know what my name is. I do that to some people when I learn their name. It’s hard sometimes because of their accents to know what they are saying. If I have to ask more than 2 or 3 times, I just say Ok :) but really I have no idea what their name is.
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