My homestay experience was great.
Our host mom was more than happy to take us places during the weekend since we were
busy with research or shadowing at UTH throughout the week. There isn’t one specific
memory I have so I’m gonna talk about most of them.
I remember how during the first
week at the homestay, I would try to eat everything Odess made because I didn’t
want to be read. I’m really picky about what I eat; there are many things I
don’t like in my food, mayonnaise is probably at the top of the list. I wasn’t
sure of how to tell her that I didn’t like what she was making but at the same
time if I didn’t say anything, she would continue making food that I would feel
forced to eat. It was difficult for me because my mom knows what I like and
what I don’t like and now I was living with a new family, who were used to
making certain foods and everyone was expected to eat it. As I got more
comfortable, it became easy for me to politely decline certain veggies or other
foods and thankfully Odess understood. She even started making jokes about me
being so picky since Libby would pretty much eat all the foods I wouldn’t.
During the second week, one of
Odess’ friends invited her to a kitchen party and she extended that invitation
to Libby and me. I was so excited to go because Mira and I had done our
presentation on weddings so we read about kitchen parties. The Friday night
before, when we went to that restaurant as a group, I got extremely nauseous
afterwards and I was sick all night and throughout Saturday, so I had to stay
home. On Sunday I was feeling a little better so Odess took us all to a reptile
farm. It was a long drive so she talked to us about her husband and where they
want to move in the future. We spent the whole day at the reptile farm and came
back home around 5pm. We ended up eating nshima and watching our Bollywood
shows on ZeeWorld.
The following weekend, we went to
an elephant orphanage. I sat in the back of the car with one of the babies in
my lap. We took some photos (because I realized that we didn’t have any photos
as a family). It was nice because the whole family came with us. It reminded me
of going out with my mom and my sister.
When we wanted to buy souvenirs and
chitenge for our families, Odess was the biggest help. She took us back to Kamwala market and we were able to buy chitenge for 25 kwacha rather than 50 (which is what most stores were charging). She even took us to
Kabwata Cultural Village and bargained prices down for us. We told her which
ones we wanted, gave her our money and she negotiated the prices. There were
two necklaces I wanted and the guy told Odess 60 kwacha for each. She bargained
with him and ended up paying 15 for each instead.
Anytime Odess would make us dinner
or take us out somewhere I would always say thank you and one day after dinner,
Odess said ‘we’re all family, you don’t have to say thank you.’ I continued to
thank her though for everything because she has no idea how much she had a
positive influence on my experience. The Friday morning we left, I hugged
everyone goodbye and it was sad because I had gotten used to the noise the kids
made almost every night and talking to my host sisters before I went to bed. I
think my homestay experience would’ve been so different if Odess hadn’t taken
care of us the way she did. Welcoming a stranger with open arms makes all the
difference.
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