Kenyan Girl's Journey to China

More than 600 years ago, a ship carrying Chinese sailors capsized off the Indian Ocean near Siyu in Lamu.

六百年前，在肯尼亚拉姆周围的印度洋一艘中国船翻船了。

According to accounts by the local people and historians, a ship from Malindi that was carrying giraffes and other mementoes capsized in the high seas near Shanga. A few sailors swam to safety and got integrated in the local community. 

根据当地人和历史家们的述说，中国的船带有长颈鹿和其它纪念品从肯尼亚马林迪出发，但是在Shanga翻船了。有一些海员们游到了一个安全的地方并且加入了当地人。

This shipwreck, involving famous Chinese explorer Zheng He, is the genesis of the story of Mwamaka Sharifu. Dr Sharifu was born and bred in Siyu village, Pate island, in the Lamu archipelago. But her ancestry can be traced to the Chinese Ming Dynasty in East China’s Jiangsu Province. 

翻的船是中国著名的航海家郑和一起的，而今天关于Mwamaka的故事是有一定的关系。目前是一名大夫的Mwamaka，在肯尼亚出生但是她已经证明她带有中国江苏的基因。

Dr Sharifu having studied clinical Chinese medicine and graduated from the Nanjing University of Traditional Chinese Medicine. She has become one of the prominent Kenyan ambassadors in the East. She is special because she is one of the few links the Chinese have with the Kenyan coast. The others are her mother Baraka Badi Shee, her two sisters and two brothers.

这名大夫在南京中医药大学毕业的。他已经变成中肯友谊最主要的人物。因为她虽然是肯尼亚人但是她是600年前的中国和肯尼亚岸贸易的象征。除了她以外，还有她妈妈，两个姐姐和两个弟弟。

“My grandmother’s great grandfather, who converted to Islam and was named Mohamed, was among the few Chinese sailors who were rescued after their ship hit a big rock called Mwamba Hassan and capsized,” Dr Sharifu says.

“我的奶奶的曾祖父因为信了伊斯兰教把他的名字改成穆罕默德，他是被救的中国海员之一，他们的船因为撞上了一个叫Mwamba Hassan的石头导致翻船了”她说。

She is a confident young woman, in whose hands many Chinese patients are putting their lives. And that has been thanks to a sponsorship she got to study in China.

她很有自信，她还在中国的医院给了不少的中国病人看病。这是因为她的故事被发现了以后得到了奖学金来中国学医。

Others that helped her were the National Museums of Kenya, the Ministry of Higher Education, the Chinese embassy in Kenya and the China Scholarship Council. “Upon reaching China and meeting the real family of the great sailor, Admiral Zheng He, it was a great relief for they ensured that I was settled and geared up to start studies,” she says.

发现了她的这个故事以后有很多人去帮她，包括肯尼亚国家博物馆，肯尼亚高等教育部门，中国在肯尼亚大使馆和国家留学基金管理会员会。“来了中国以后我跟郑和的后代们见面了，这样我就安定的开始了我的学习”她说。

“The initial two years were full of challenges, but I’m glad I was able to finish the Chinese language course and can now not only speak and write in it, but also translate it to Kiswahili or English with ease,” she says.

“开始的两年是很有挑战性的，但是我很开心我终于不仅仅可以用中文说和写，我还可以把中文翻译成斯瓦西里语和英语”，她说。

“Unlike the other languages I was used to, there are no alphabets in Chinese, but only 3,000 characters which one has to memorise before applying. Now I understand why it takes at least two years to study the language because one word can have so many meanings and usages. It all depends on the pronunciation,” she said.

“我以前用的语言都有字母，但是中文没有，至少要掌握3000个汉字才能利用。我现在明白了为什么要花至少两年学汉语，因为一个字有很多意义和用法，而且还要掌握发音”，她说。

But language was not her only difficulty in China. The food and culture were hard to adapt to. “I gradually adapted to the life and managed to live almost like the Chinese,” she recalls.

但是语言不仅仅是她在中国所遇到的困难。食物和文化也很难适应。“我后来习惯了，就开始像中国人一样的生活下去”，她回想到。

And then there was her faith.

“As a young Muslim lady life was more difficult because of huge cultural differences. At the beginning I would spend most of the time indoors to avoid things that are forbidden in Islamic culture. However, with time I got used to the culture and fear disappeared and I chose to do what was right,” she says.

后来是她的信仰。

“作为一个年轻的穆斯林姑娘在这里因为文化不同，会导致生活的一些不便。刚开始我一般都会为了避免那些在穆斯林的文化禁止的习惯在室内待着。后来随着时间我习惯了中国的文化也开始自我选择正确的生活方式。”她说。

“I discovered that the Chinese I learnt in the language class for two years was not useful for the technical course, especially medicine. Grasping the biological concepts in class or through reading was hell. Briefly, I did a two-year course in Chinese language, then five years of clinical Chinese medicine,” she says.

“我学专业的时候我发现我花了两年学汉语，但是在技专业上没有太大的作用，尤其是医学。在课堂上或者自学的时候能把专业词的含义明白的不是一个简单的事。简单的说，我花了两年学中文之后花了5年学中医”，她说。

She plans to return to Kenya and practise medicine and engage in community work after her studies. 

她最终的梦想是学习完了以后回肯尼亚当医生。