Lala Salama...Good night

“Lala salama" translated literally means sleep good or safe in Swahili. But in the town where I live, Merrueshi,  some people jokingly do not like to use that phrase. This is because a town, one hour away from us, is called Salama and it is not safe for drivers. The highway goes through that town and it is at the top of a hill. The highway has no divider live a freeway and is generally only two lanes in total. Coming up the hill, on this part of the highway, one side has two lanes to itself and the downhill side has one lane. Dispute this there are many auto accidents from people passing on the hill. The passing is because of all the slow moving trucks chugging uphill and fast moving cars. I have not seen anything like this since I was a child...before they put in I-5. Instead of saying lala salama, those who joke about it, use the town name in which we live. lala Merrueshi, Seattle, Olympia, etc. keeping to correct Swahili and it's general usage lala salama is the correct way to say goodnight. But if you run into variations it can be because some people know about the town of Salama and live near it.