Really fantastic day today! After an early breakfast we divided into our assigned pairs and gathered groceries into bags and headed out to our home stays. My partner Liz and I, along with two other pairs, walked out of camp and across the cornfields to the families where we would be spending the day. Liz and I were with the Herman Gaey family which consisted of mama and baba (mother and father) Gaey, their son Floridh, two nieces, four grandchildren (I think there were more but they were at school) and other assorted people who came and went without introducing themselves. The family had a very interesting setup. Right off the track there was a small mud hut with a smoky thatched roof from years of cooking. Just beyond that and at about ninety degrees (all these building form a sort of courtyard) was a fair sized mud and stick house with a metal sheet roof. This building is where the family has lived for quite a while now and they built it so they could move out of the first mud hut we saw. This current house has four rooms that are shared among the family. Behind these rooms, and accessed from the outside only, are two rooms where they keep their livestock of goats and cattle during the night. Across the “courtyard” is a new house that is in the process of being built. This new building has more rooms than the current house, higher ceilings, and lovely large windows. The walls and roof are finished and the floor, windows, and doors will go in when the family next has money to spare.
Anyways we got there, introduced ourselves, and gave the family the groceries. The family promptly sat us down and served us chai or tea with tons of milk and even more sugar. After two huge steaming cup of chai, Liz and I got to wash the breakfast plates and mugs in two plastic tubs outside. After finishing this one of the nieces was walking to the store in town to buy a few things and we went along. In total we bought four tomatoes, two onions, and some quantity of rice. Even though we had not been there very long, by the time we got back to the house it was time to start making lunch. While Liz and I were perfectly willing to help we recognized that we would only be in the way so we were given two stools to sit on and we squashed into a corner of the old mud hut while the highly efficient nieces and mama went about making lunch. The “kitchen” was six stones arranged into two groups of three near each other. To cook a pot is balanced on three stones over the fire. Lunch was a big meal. They served us the traditional Africa meal of ground corn called ugali, rice, beef, and cabbage. My favorites were the rice and cabbage which had amazing flavors (how I have no idea). After lunch we sat and digested while the father of the family peppered us with questions about America through his son who spoke English. This went on for quite a while and eventually turned into a lesson in Kiswahili since the son teaches Swahili to kids in one of the surrounding towns. This was really fantastic because I have been a bit disappointed with our Swahili lessons here and I still did not know how to say basic sentences like asking for directions, how much something was etc. I how have a small exercise book of useful phrases, the days of the week, the months and other things like that from my host brother. Getting up to stretch our legs I pulled out my camera. I ended up taking pictures of everyone there, in all of their best clothes, with and without the babies, the whole family, portions of the family, everyone. The kids smiled shyly and the adults looked straight faced into the lens just like they use to when camera were new. Showing them the pictures afterwards, the girls would hide their faces and the boys would smile and nod their approval. Still holding the camera we were given a tour of their land which has been divided into smaller pieces for each of the son’s to have their own piece of land. Returning to the house, Liz and I got to help with laundry and the little kids giggled as we hung clean clothes over the fence to dry. Playing with the kids, looking through many family photos, and drinking more chai, we finished off the day very relaxed and eager to come back and hang out with this family. Honestly we wished we were staying for a few days instead of just a day.
Regrouped in camp, everyone was swapping stories of what they did that day and who had the best/worst tasks to do. The kitchen staff let us celebrate with guacamole that we made ourselves…so good especially after a lunch of virtually all rice/ugali. I re-read my paper, printed it and handed it in. It was now barely 8:30 and I was work free. I returned all of my stuff to my banda and headed to the fire pit. There I found askari Boo-ra and one of the female kitchen staff named Rusty. Askari Boo-ra is hilarious in general. He can imitate any animal in Africa, he sings beautifully, and is the funniest comedian I have ever met. He also thinks “mzungos” (white people) are very funny and spends lots of time laughing good naturedly at all of us. So since it was just the three of us (me, Boo-ra, and Rusty) they began testing my Swahili and improving my vocabulary. I now know part of a new song, stars, sky, tree, bird, lots of body parts, house, door, window, pot, cooking ware, ash, fire, and smoke. My brain is pretty tired but I am elated at my small victory of Swahili vocab.
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