Homestay

I hope you guys liked my pictures! I'm going to try to put more up soon. I have a bunch from the homestay I went on yesterday. This homestay I went on was basically just a day to live in an African boma, or home, with an African family for the day. My roommate Olivia and I were paired together and dropped off at 7:30 in the morning to a small home just about five minutes away from camp. We were welcomed by a woman Lydia, and her two little girls Abigail and Vivean. They led us in through their gate, which they made with lots of branches and thorns to keep animals out. Their house was made with sticks, mud and manure, and consisted of two small rooms. Both rooms had enough space for one twin bed, and then open walking space which was about the size of another twin size bed. In the main room, where the front door was, they had two small tables as well. Under the tables were the 5 pots the family owned, and on top were the few plates, cups, and bowls they had. They also had some small food items like tea and salt, but everything they had for cooking and cleaning was on top of a table that was about three feet by 2 feet. It was another eye opener to say the least.

So when we got there we were welcomed into the house to put our bags down. We then went right out to the garden to start the days work. The family we visited harvests tomatoes, so we went through the garden, which was maybe 25 square feet, and pulled out all the weeds. Instead of throwing the weeds out we would place them on top of the tomato plants so that the afternoon sun wouldn't damage them. We did this for close to an hour and then we walked over to a different section of the garden where maize was growing. Lydia gave Olivia a "slasher" and she gave me a giant knife. The slasher was used kind of like a hoe to loosen dirt around the growing plants, and the giant knife was for hacking down big weeds. After a while we switched jobs, and finally were finished after about another hour. I had a bunch of blisters and felt like such a whimp. I still can't believe they really do these things all the time.

After gardening we went inside for a tea break. We had tea and bisquits, and it was nice to relax. Once we finished it was time to get water. We walked about 15 minutes to a watering hole. We filled up three big jugs of water. As we walked we talked to Lydia, and she explained that she walks to get water every morning and night. Once the jugs were full she tied a cloth through their handles and propped them up so that the material she tied rested on the top of our foreheads. We walked the 15 minutes back with water jugs on our backs, while we supported the weight with our heads. It was very African haha. The worst thing I have seen since I've been here happened while we were getting water. Half way into collecting a herd of cows and goats walked right into the small pool we were taking the water from. They were drinking and going to the bathroom is the same watering hole the families in the area get their water from everyday. I hated seeing that. It was terrible. I'm pretty sure they boil all the water they get before using it, but it was still so sad to see them using such disgusting water.

When we got back, we went back out to the garden. We picked tomatoes for an hour. By then it was 12, and sun was hot, and picking tomatoes was notttt fun. Luckily after an hour we got to go back to the house to make lunch. We remade the small fire outside the house and first cooked ugali, which is basically ground corn put into boiling water. When its done it looks like white mashed potatos, and tastes kinda like mashed up white rice. Next I cut two tiny onions up and put them in a pot with butter (actually I think it might have just been lard, ew). Once the butter/lard was melted I added five small tomatoes I had chopped up, and then a head of cabbage I had also cut up. All that was mixed until it was hot. We then put these veggies with the ugali and all sat down to eat. By lunch the two little girls, who were 6 and 2, had gotten very comfortable with Olivia and I, and were having a lot of fun playing with us, sitting on our laps and hugging us. We also played with the 5 children of Lydia's husbands other wife. They were all so so so cute. I will try to put up pictures of them soon. They were very interested in us, and they played with our hair and inspected our skin. They even tried to take my freckles off of me. They didnt know much english, but luckily their mom knew a good amount so communication wasn't too much of a problem during the day. Some of the other groups couldn't communicate with their host families all day, so we got lucky.

After lunch we all rested and hung out together. By the time we had to go I was exhausted but it was sad to leave the little girls and Lydia after connecting with them all day. It was an amazing experience that I never imagined I would have, but at times it made me very sad to see how little they really did have.

The day was another overall good day.

So I have one more story before I go...but I should warn you Grammy, you might not want to keep reading... A few nights ago when I left my cabin to go to the bathroom, I had the first snake sighting of the semester! When we got here we were given a safety lecture about all the creatures here including snakes. There are three very poisonous snakes that live in Kenya, and that have been seen on camp in the past. Every night everyone has to wear closed toed shoes and long pants to keep us protected from them, just in case. Luckily, thats what I was wearing when I saw the snake. It wasn't big at all; it was very very small, but those ones are actually considered the most dangerous. When baby snakes bite they don't know how to control their venom, so they will just release it all when the strike. The one that I saw, that we think was a baby black mamba, has enough venom to kill a few people. HOWEVER it was so small that I really don't think it would have gotten through my pants or shoes if it did try to bite. But after I saw it I went straight to the guards and told them I saw a snake. They only speak swahili, and just nodded their heads at me, so I stood there for a few seconds and then just said, snake!! At the word they all jumped up and repeated snake and followed me to where it was. They killed it, because any snake found on camp is killed just to be safe. Im very glad it was a baby, because I probably would have freaked out if I saw a big one. SO thats my snake story. It wasnt so bad, so dont worry Grammy!!!

OK well I'll try to get more pictures up soon from my two safaris last week. Hope all is well! Thanks for reading : )

Jen