Homestay

A few weeks ago our southwest group left our training site in Kulika and headed to Kinoni (Che-no-ni) for a month of homestay.  Nine of us, plus our two language trainers along with all of our luggage crammed into a taxi and made the 5 hour journey to Kinoni.  The drive was beautiful, but very uncomfortable since the conductor of the taxi decided to come along resulting in me being squished with half a seat.  Rarely do you ever get your “own” seat in this country. My family has been really great- my host father, Reverend Balaam Katamba, is a retired reverend, although he still works when he gets called. My host mother, Beatrice, is a teacher in a different city and is gone Mon-Fri. My host sister Linda, is 18 years old, just finished high school and will be going to university in August.  She traveled back home from Kampala when she heard I was coming so that she could prepare meals for me and keep me company…..The dynamics of the household are MUCH different than what I am used to. Linda does EVERYTHING from cooking all the meals to fetching water for me to cleaning.  The gender roles are definitely very defined and at times this is hard for me.  I have definitely connected the most with Linda and am so happy she is around because I think if she were not, my experience would be much different. I attended church 2 Sundays back with my sister and it was basically an hour and a half of me having no clue what was going on..i guess that’s kind of the theme here lately.  The service was all in Runyankore, the language I am currently learning, although Linda tried to translate some for me.

Everyone in my family speaks English well, which has made the language barrier pretty much non-existent. I use a pit latrine outside for a toilet, I take bucket baths outside in a bamboo structure, our house has no electricity and no running water….so pretty much it’s back to the basics for me! But I don’t mind and it hasn’t been that much of a struggle because I really do love my family.  There are also 3 workers who live in separate quarters, 2 males and 1 female who has a son named Roland.  It has taken some time for him to warm up to me but I am happy to say we are now bff’s! The dynamics of having workers is also something very odd to me.  They do not sit at the same table for meals as we do and at times it seems they get the “left overs” after we have taken our share.  The workers take care of the cows, goats, chickens and banana plantations, as well as walk about 15 minutes down the road to get our water.

So my family can say some pretty funny things…here’s just a few…

Linda: “ I want to be taller and FAT!” (the desire to be fat here is very real! It is a sign that you can afford to eat well)

Reverend: “ Now that you are my daughter, I REALLY hope you are planning to marry”

Me: “ Yes, I plan to get married in the future”

Reverend: “I am hoping very much that you will pro-create because I want more grandkids.  And it would be so nice if you would send us tickets to come to your wedding!”

Reverend: “Eat more! By the time you leave us we want you to be very fat! Then the whole community will say ah! The reverend has fed her very well!”

As you can see, he is really taking his “host fathering” VERY seriously.  This past weekend Linda and I traveled to Mbarara- a city about 30 mins from Kinoni, where you can find just about anything you need, including American food! I ate a veggie pizza and it was delicious! My meals thus far usually consist of rice, beans, cabbage, matooke and sometimes meat. Surprisingly I am enjoying the food ive been eating at homestay much more than that in Kulika during training!  The whole “boot camp” model for training is really wearing on all of us.  We have no free time and I feel like I have been non stop go go go since I arrived.  Because of this I think, I got sick a week ago with what seemed to be an upper respiratory infection, I am feeling much better and am just waiting for the cough to leave me.

To summarize…. I am learning:

1. to be content with never feeling clean
2. to do “short calls” (pee...you can guess what long call is) in a night bucket instead of walking in the dark to the pit latrine at night
3. to be ok with not knowing what’s going on most of the time
4. to accept being eaten alive by mosquitoes despite the fact I put bug spray on all the time!
5. (attempting) the local language, Runyankore and hoping I pass my oral language exam next Friday! 

Here are some photos from homestay…more w/ my family and I and the traditional introduction ceremony to come...

our crowded taxi to homestay 

waiting for our homestay parents in the pouring rain!

church my family attends

The kids love to gather and stare at the muzungus in class

my walk to class every morning 

My family's house

where i "shower"

my toilet

our classroom for language lessons

meet Roland

kitchen

My bedroom

The avocados are HUUUGE here! and super cheap :)

Jackfruit....im not a fan.

Roland and I bonding over kicking the balloon 

one of our cows

view from my yard 

whacking the beans out

Linda and the workers Emmaculate, Charles and Moses

Roland and I chillin

My sister Linda and I 

Kinoni