Kiswahili Speakers in the USA???

It has always deeply impressed me when I come across a westerner who can speak a basic level of Kiswahili to get by as a tourist. Then sometimes you’ll meet the odd British who can speak excellent, if not perfect Swahili, in part due to their colonial links with the East African region. But I never thought I’d meet an full on red-blooded American who can speak perfect Kiswahili in the Pacific Northwest until today. Just when I thought I’m all disconnected from home, you end up meeting someone who can speak my own mother tongue better than me! Pretty amazing… She should work for Kiva.org, the microfinance organization I raved about in the fall quarter that one of my classmates is working on, I think she would be a huge asset, speaking of, Kiva has been doing a super job of getting into the news recently, check out this businessweek story- those guys have become masters of generating good PR for their business and on their way to scaling up...

My view of Americans is changing- when you look deep enough, even a the ordinary non business school types, there are some real gems. May sound strange, but I sleep better at night knowing that one more American can speak really good Swahili and one more American is micro-lending to a poor entrepreneur in Africa.