On Sunday, when we were first going
to meet our host families, I was so anxious and nervous to meet mine. All I was
told before we came to Zambia was that our host mom was the new family addition
to SAIPAR this year and that she had been to the United States before. All ten
of us were sitting at a table outside the lodge we had stayed in the previous
night, waiting to be picked up. Everyone was joking about having to sleep in a
bunk bed and Tatyana said that we shouldn’t worry, we would have our own beds. Tatyana
and Esther were making bets on whose host family would be the first to arrive. I
wanted mine to be first and as the
minutes passed by and the sun started setting, I became more nervous. The first
host parent was Paul and Karl’s host dad. He was really friendly, making jokes
with the rest of us while the guys got their luggage. As each new car pulled
into the parking lot, I wondered if it was my host mom. My roommate, Libby, and
I were the second to last pair to be picked up and the first thing our host mom
did was hug us. We packed our luggage into her car, said our goodbyes to
Tatyana and left the lodge.
She told us that she couldn’t wait
to meet us and her kids couldn’t wait either. It was comforting to know that
even though she had no idea who we were, she was ready to welcome us into her
home for four weeks. She started telling us about what she did when she came to
the US and then she talked about her job and her kids. She’s a teacher and she
teaches nutrition for students in secondary school. She also bakes cakes for
various occasions, such as weddings, birthdays, etc. She began speaking about
her six kids of her kids, two of which are her own, two her sisters and the
last two were from a family member who passed away. She said was “You guys are
my babies now too,” and that made me feel so welcome. She said that she loved helping
people because when she needed help in the past someone had helped her out. That’s
an amazing value to have and that’s how I feel being at Cornell most of the
time. Coming from a low socio-economic neighborhood, which is difficult to get
out of, it was definitely a challenge transitioning to the rigor Cornell sets
for its students my freshman year. Without the support of my advisors and my
family I wouldn’t have been able to push through so whenever I get the chance
to talk to high school students about my experience, I take it.
When we arrived at her house, the
two boys opened the gate to let us in. When Libby and I got out of the car, we were
welcomed with 2 pairs of open hands ready to hug us. We met everyone else once
we got inside and they hugged us too. The two babies were a bit nervous and our
host mom said they would open to us very quickly. She showed us to our room and
the first thing I noticed in the room were the bunk beds. How ironic. Less than
an hour ago, our entire group was discussing bunk beds and I would be spending
my four weeks sleeping in one. Seeing the bunk beds also put me back to my twelve-year-old
self when I used to sleep in a bunk bed. I used to sleep on the top and my
sister on the bottom so I opted to sleep on the top bunk. I started unpacking
some of my clothes realizing that I would be with a new family for a whole
month. Our host mom called us to see the rest of the house. The room next to
ours was were four of the kids would be sleeping. My first thought was ‘wow,
all of them in one space’ and it dawned on me that we had taken the boys room
so they would have to sleep in the other room for the month. Our host mom let
us unpack for a bit and then came back a few minutes later handing the both of
us chitenge. It was so nice of her to not only accommodate us into her home but
also give us the traditional cloth. She called us out to eat dinner with
everyone. Libby and I sat on one couch eating nshima with chicken, watching an
Indian show called ‘Twist of Fate,’ which I’ve grown to really like.
Family means a lot to me; my mom,
my sister and I do everything together. No matter what is going on, we’re always
there for one another. Of all the summers I’ve spent away from home, this one was
the most nervous for me because I was traveling out of the country. I’ve only
traveled once before on a plane and the flight was four, almost five, hours
long. I also knew beforehand I wouldn’t be able to talk to my mom and my sister
as much because of the six hour time difference. The fact that our host mom has
a full house makes me happy because I love kids and the two oldest girls are
close to my age. Since the family is so big, and the kids were busy laughing
and running around, that distracted me from being homesick.
Our host mom is my second mother. She
definitely took away most of my worries that night because being in a new
country and knowing that someone is looking out for me is comforting. It’s been
two weeks and we only have two left with our homestay and I plan on making the
most of it.
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