(See You) Tomorrow, Kirundi Names, Do You Speak Kirundi?, Two Proverbs, Welcome!

(See You) Tomorrow:

• In addition to "tuzosubira ejo" -- literally "see you tomorrow" -- one can say "naho ejo" ("nahejo") to communicate the same thing.
• In this case, of course, "ejo" means tomorrow, but "naho" lacks any clear, distinct grammatical meaning -- it sort of takes the place of "tuzosabira."
• Similar constructions exist for "see you next week/month/year", but in each case the "naho" placeholder takes a slightly different form in order to agree.

Kirundi Names:

• In Burundi, rather than surnames or family names, all children are given two names, unique to them: a Christian or Muslim first name, and a Kirundi name.  The Kirundi name is almost always meaningful, but not always in ways that are intuitive to European sensibilities.  
• I have met several people whose Kirundi name is some version of "hated person" or "distrusted by all" or "misfortune."  Apparently this is neither unusual nor thought to reflect upon the bearer of that name.  Some parents are just having a rough time, and so name their kids to reflect that.  Others might just like the sound of the name.
• Other names are more positive, reflecting hope and good fortune.  Quite a lot of Kirundi names refer to God -- "known by God," "loved by God," "trusts to God," etc.  These names often end in "imana", the word for "God," but may take many other forms.
• Burundians tend to be fecund, and as may be expected, they often resort to simply numbering their children after the first few (note that these names are gender neutral):
• The name of the first child often includes the word "mfura," for example "Pamfura" and "Mfuranzima"
• There are no special names for children 2 - 5
• Miburu -- 6th Child
• Nyandwi -- 7th Child
• Minani -- 8th Child
• Nyabena -- 9th Child
• Bucumi -- 10th Child (I have met several Bucumi's...)
• Misago -- 11th Child
• In the case of twins, the first born is usually named "Bukuru" and the second born is named "Botoyi." The next child born after twins is often named "Ciza," and the child after that is often named "Nkurikiye."

Do You Speak Kirundi?

• uravuga ikirundi? -- do you speak Kirundi? (from "kuvuga" -- "to speak")
• gike cāne -- little | very (very little)
• buke / bukebuke! -- slowly! (or "little by little")

Two Proverbs:

• bukebuke bushikana umusiba kumugezilittle by little, a worm will get to the water source.
  (the Kirundi equivalent of "slow and steady wins the race")
• bukebuke -- slowly / little by little
• bushikana -- to arrive by way of (from "gushika" -- "to arrive")
• umusiba -- a worm
• kumugezi -- water source

• uwitonze amira ibinoze
  a careful person swallows well-chewed food
  (a way of saying "easy does it")
• uwitonze -- a person who does things carefully and slowly (from "kwitonda" --  "to do things slowly and carefully")
• amira -- swallows
• ibinoze -- well-chewed food

Welcome!

• kaze! -- welcome!