Homestay Week

We were assigned to our homestay families this past Sunday, so I have had a couple of days to adjust to Bangatan life. Although it has to be said that life here is completely different from life at home, I do like it. My Mama and I were the last to be assigned to each other, but she treats me like part of the family already. She is very kind, and she speaks English, so she is constantly teaching me Swahili.  The first night that I arrived, my Mama and I danced while we made dinner.  I also have a 12-year-old Dada (sister), Amani, who helps me with basically everything, and she loves how soft my hair is. Every night she does my hair up into 3 braids while I work on homework or we play cards. My Babu (grandfather) is a retired teacher, so he loves to teach me grammatically correct kiswahili. And lastly, I have a 1-year-old Dada named Emiliana. She is adorable and shockingly knows even less Swahili than myself! Last night, she said Dada for the first time, while she was playing with me, and it was very exciting. The neighbor kids are great at showing me around the village and a couple days ago they helped me count all the way to 300.  The first night when I arrived, my extended family presented me with a rooster with tinsel on it’s head in celebration of my arrival. We tied it up in the kitchen and for multiple nights it would crow in the middle of the night and wake me up. So far my biggest struggle has been not being able to use the bathroom in the middle of the night. My Mama locks the doors at 8:00pm and the bathroom is outside so I am unable to pee for 12 hours.

But all in all, my days have been very nice. I go to school Monday through Friday and I am learning a lot of Swahili. I am becoming more and more able to communicate with the people here and I have only had 2 kiswahili lessons. Its only my fourth day in Bangata and I already have so many stories, I cant wait to see what will happen in the up coming three weeks.