Wapi

Wapi is a very useful Swahili word that can be used in almost any situation requiring expression on negativity. My students use it when they’re having computer troubles. People use it when cab drivers try to rip them off.
The other day our domestic, Athanase, was up a tree picking edible leaves when the branch he was standing on broke. I heard the crack and looked up from my computer to see a small red blur surrounded by a large green blur crash to the ground. Athanase, in the red New York Yankees basketball jersey he wears while working, climbed up out of the fallen branches, shook himself off, looked down and exclaimed “Wapi!”