Each year, many American wanafunzi wa chuo kikuu (university students), primarily in the sciences, travel to Kenya in Africa on study (kujifunza) and research tours for at least one semester. Part of their stay is in sponsoring universities, but much of their time is also spent in remote, rural areas (mashambani) of the country (nchi), where they collect data for their respective projects (miradi). This field component is usually accompanied by an attachment to a local family (jamaa) for the cultural component of their course. American students need to have some basic understanding (elewa/jua) of fundamental Kiswahili expressions and gestures when they arrive in Kenya to ease their transition into the host family setting. Also, data collection is done in areas where only Kiswahili is spoken (zungumuzwa); therefore there is tremendous value in learning (mila) the language.