Blog Post 3

As the homestay experience comes to an end, I find myself feeling more upset than I thought I would. It’s amazing how in the matter of a few weeks, I became very close to my host mom and host sisters. Initially, I felt really uncomfortable and out of place at my homestay because I was kind of homesick and I missed my family. However, after a few days and some long and deep conversations with my host mom, I found myself feeling so at home in the homestay. Getting into a routine was also really helpful in helping me adjust to the new living situation. Last night, Tiffany and I want to our homestay to pick up our luggage and have dinner and we kept talking about how much we are going to miss coming home to Linda and the girls because Abundant Life just doesn’t feel like home yet to us.

I think that the homestay experience has been one of the areas in the program where I have learned the most. It has been such an enriching and rewarding experience. With my host mom, I learned so much about Zambian traditions and culture. She taught me and Tiff how to cook nshima, soup, and vegetables and told us about Zambian traditions. She also taught me a lot of Nyanja, which has been really fun to use around Lusaka. Aside, from all of these experiences, I think my favorite part of the homestay experience has just been how strong of a bond I have formed with my homestay family. I feel like I want to come back to Lusaka again soon so that I can visit them again. We are planning on having weekly dinners at the house so that we can stay in touch. I feel like leaving Lusaka in a couple of weeks is going to be so difficult because it will be like leaving a part of my family behind. I never thought I would say this at the beginning of the program, but I am definitely going to miss my little host sisters as well because we got so close over the period of a few weeks. They truly feel like my real sisters now!

I honestly think that my favorite memory from the homestay was dancing with my host mom and host sisters in the garden as traditional Zambian music was blasting out of the car. It was such a spontaneous activity, but it was definitely one of the times that I have felt the happiest here. This memory is something which I will probably keep with me forever because it was just one of those moments when I really felt like I fit into the family and I would be able to adopt this new family as my own. For someone who was a little homesick at the beginning of the trip, this moment was a huge breakthrough for me. Also, I am normally a fairly quiet and reserved person, and I would usually never start spontaneously dancing in public. However, Linda and the girls really pushed me out of my comfort zone and made me do something (which I ended up loving) which I never would have done before coming to Zambia. This is just an example of one of the biggest things the homestay taught me, which was that it is good to sometimes go out of your comfort zone and have new experiences. During my time here, I feel like my homestay family and my roommate have really instilled this lesson in me, and it is something which I am definitely going to take back with me to the States. Going out of my comfort zone has been so rewarding so far and  I feel like have learned so much and I am happier with myself now, than I was before this trip. For this, I am truly grateful that the homestay experience is a part of this program.