Day 3 - And so I meet my host family...

Sawa...

   Today was THE day. Butterflies jittered in my stomach out of soooo much excitement. Today we met our host families. All the families began filing into Kundayo, and we all lined up as if being auctioned off to a lucky... or not so lucky family. Mama Tesha is the infamous mama and coordinator of it all. Her sassy and respected character told us that we could trust her to put us into great hands. So each pair of students waited intently for Mama Tesha to finally announce our new Tanzanian families.

   

Amaya

My good friend, Amaya, and I were lucky enough to get a wonderful family whose father is the owner of a safari company. We got to meet our new mama, Mama Peace. Quite fitting I would say. Mama Peace is such a warm, friendly, and welcoming woman with a bright smile to light your day. She seemed just as excited as we were.  She has those big loving warm arms that you just feel at home. We haven't met Baba Peace yet. He is on safari, but we are very excited to get to meet him soon. We also got to meet Mama and Baba Peace's wonderful watoto (children). There is Peace (15yrs old), Glory (14), Brittany (7), and Junior (4). You got to love Junior's cute chubby cheeks. All of them are such wonderful, beautiful and polite blessings for Mama and Baba Peace. 

   Peace has a lot of responsibility, since she is the oldest.  Her birthday is next Wednesday, so wish her happy birthday from America by sending a picture or something by Tuesday. Glory is just... so glory. She is so kind and willing to help us with our Swahili in return for learning our English, even when she had a headache. Brittany is very curious, and she and I will sit down on the kochi and exchange Swahili and English words back and forth. She is sooooo determined; even when I am all out of words she insists..."nyingine!" (another). Junior was shy at first, but what can you expect from a four year old. He warmed up to us quickly, and by no time, he was climbing on my back for piggy back rides, shouting Ben10! Ben10!, and showing us his famous kung fu. Silly boy! Soon our relationship with the kids escalated to them teaching us how to dance, giving us smiles, playing games, and even telling us they loved us...in unison...awwww.

   An even greater part about Tanzania is their relationships with one another. The people of a country that have seen their fair share of struggle have learned that sometimes they just feel blessed with an overabundance of family. I met people who weren't even family who come and go from the house, and Mama Peace considered them family. Something I am not used to is that they have house help.

   The bed they gave us is HUUUGGGEEE.

I am pretty sure they don't make this size in America. I sometimes ponder if Mama Peace gave us the master bedroom, because I find Baba Peace's clothing in the closets.... how giving... The bathroom is blue tiled everywhere, but nothing in it seems to work properly.  The sink had a hole, the shower had no hot water or water pressure, and the toilet didn't flush.  They don't use toilet paper either, which I think is so wonderful for me.  I dont think just because I am Amerikani that I should get any sort of special treatment. I had to take a bucket bath this morning, which was awesome because it taught me gratitude, along with humbleness and efficiency! 

   We also had a true Tanzanian dinner with lots of fruit, rice, and beef that was basically all bone. :) We got to sit in on their version of family devotional, where they said the Lord's prayer, read a Bible verse, discussed it, and then sang a song together.  It was such a beautiful sight to see a family sit together and carry God into their daily lives as a reminder of the blessings they already do have, rather than what they don't. They too understand that everyone suffers in their own ways, and that life could be harder, so instead they take it for what it is. In essence, relationships are important because they are what help the system run smoothly.

   I think it is important to note that our family's eagerness to learn our ways and understand them is just as much as we want to understand theirs. Mama Peace explained to us how she really wanted to learn English, because westernization is now on such a high demand that you almost can't get a job without one. We have a lot to learn from her and she is constantly pushing us to learn more and more every day.

  One thing I had never thought of before that I will leave you with, is the fact that Americans are so eager to be able to give food, mosquito nets, toys, or whatever to Africa. Africans are very thankful and grateful people for our gifts, but if we Americans could ask ourselves what would it be like if someone wanted to come to the States and say "Hey! I'm here to help you" what our response would be. At times, I feel our ignorance shadows the fact that we forget the real picture. Tanzanians are very VERY proud people of their culture. Sharing our Swahili with them has amazed them greatly and has represented America in a way that instead of just giving without really knowing or understanding what and who we are really giving to, we want to understand. At times, people's ignorance makes them not realize that Africans...Tanzanians in this case.. aren't as unhappy as we make them, and in the end, they might end up teaching us more than we would teach or help them.  

Sending love from Africa!

Jax

P.S. The family has one cat named Twila, and dogs...we don't go near those.

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