This weekend I moved in with my homestay family in Nairobi. The house is just a 5-minutes from the SIT office, so the walk to school each morning will be no problem. I have an 8 year-old brother, Matthew, and a 3 year-old sister, Hannah. They’re adorable and full of energy. Yesterday both parents were out of the house, so I was home with the kids and the house help for most of the day. The kids love to watch TV (iCarly, Drake & Josh, Spongebob) and go through my things—I’ll have to keep an eye on that!
The house is very modern. It has wifi, running water (even hot water), a microwave, etc. It might seem weird that I mentioned this, but my homestay is not typical of all homestays in the program. At school this morning, many of my classmates shared stories of bucket showers and sleeping in rooms with the entire family. I’m extremely lucky to be in the situation I am in. My family is very young compared to many of the host families, and I think this is the reason they aren’t a traditional African family.
We started our full class schedule today with Kiswahili lessons in the morning and a field study seminar in the afternoon. Now I’m hanging out at the school for a few hours before I walk home for dinner. I’m quite lucky to have such a short walk; I don’t have to leave quite so early to get home before dark. I felt safe walking here this morning, but I was hyperaware of everything going on around me since I’m walking alone. The only downside to my homestay placement is that I’m not really close to anyone else in the program.
I’ll post pictures as soon as I take some :\
Hey Jenae. So happy your host family situation sounds good. Glad the accomodatios are nice and safe. I'm not sure I would fair so well with the bucket shower and sleeping all in one room, but I guess you'd get used to it like everything. Altho I am really happy for you that you don't have to. Kind of fun to have the little siblings while you are there. You are awesome with little people so sure they will love you! Austin came home Sat night after the Presentation FB game. I stayed at my mom's til Sun night cuz she has been really sick with a nasty flu (getting better tho). Anyway haven't seen much of him yet. He has today off too tho since it's Labor Day so will get to see him today. They lost their first game-which isn't shocking since first game ever. He didn't get to play at all since he's been out with a pulled hamstring--don't think that was very easy on him. Hopefully team will show lots of improvement in the future. Sending you a big hug!! Take care Jenae. Love you, Bridget
ReplyDeleteHi Jenae,
ReplyDeleteWow! This all sounds like fun and you sound like you are having a great time! Your host family sounds like they will be fun to be with! Praying for you and your adventure! Jordan