Yambo

Hello, you have A Way with Words.

Hi, this is Ryan calling from San Diego, California.

Hi, Ryan. Welcome to the program.

Hi, how are you guys doing today?

Super. What can we help you with?

I am calling. I’m a Marine station at Camp Pendleton.

Okay.

And I have been over to Iraq a few times, and each time we’re over there, on the Ford operating bases, we have a lot of Ugandan security personnel.

And they have this greeting that has kind of become a playful term of endearment for Marines who have been in that area.

I don’t know how it’s spelled, but the way they say it is Yombo, kind of like Y-A-M-B-O.

And to our understanding, it just means, hey, you know, hello, good day, that kind of thing.

But to be honest, I don’t know anybody who knows the exact meaning of it.

And nobody really knows the root language of it.

But it’s become one of those things. You’re walking around a base and you hear somebody say Yombo and you immediately know, hey, they’ve been deployed to central Iraq.

Oh, that’s really interesting.

So the Ugandan peacekeepers stationed there alongside the Americans just passed along this little bit of language.

Oh, yeah.

And it’s, like I said, you know, the Americans don’t fully understand the meaning of it, but our comprehension is good day, hello, that kind of thing.

Yeah.

We could be driving past the checkpoint and see them, and we’ll hollow out, Yombo, and you’ll get 20 or 30 Ugandans right back, Yombo, sir, Yombo.

That’s great.

That’s really nice.

So you’re hoping it’s not like a dirty word or something.

Yeah.

Well, you know, basically before we continue to spread it and teach the new guys coming into the core about it, we want to make sure that it’s not something other than good day or hello or anything like that.

-huh.

Well, great.

Well, we can help you with that because that’s exactly what it means.

It’s just hello.

It’s just a greeting.

It’s a great informal way to say hello.

It is perfectly fine.

Oh, that’s wonderful.

Yeah.

Yeah, it’s Swahili or Kiswahili as they call it, which is spoken in a lot of Eastern Africa.

And literally, as I understand it, it means thing or matter or problem is the literal meaning of it.

But when you use it to greet somebody, it’s just a plain old greeting.

You know, it’s like, what’s the thing going on with you? What’s matter?

So it’s kind of like que pasa or que pasa, right?

Yeah, what’s going on?

What up?

Very good.

What up?

All right.

Well, yeah, that’s great.

And we will just continue to utilize that term as we do now and have it be something lighthearted and playful.

I love the idea that decades from now that this word will still be in the language of the Marine Corps.

It definitely will.

Way cool.

Way cool.

Ryan, thank you so much for calling us today.

Hey, not a problem.

Thanks for having me.

All right.

Best of luck.

All right.

Bye.

Take care.

Bye-bye.

Well, what do they do in your workplace?

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