Homestay day zero

A six hour bus ride north to where our homestays are. We took one break at a rest stop, where I had my first run-in with a non-western latrine (turns out it wasn't that big a deal). As I looked around at the rest stop, a mostly outdoor setting full of food vendors and people chatting and hanging out, all I could think to myself was, I am definitely not on Megabus anymore! :)

We had lunch at what will be our site for biweekly group trainings, and then were dispatched by van with our LCFs (Language and Cross-culture Facilitators) to be dropped off at what will be our homestay families for the next ~10 weeks.

I am now in my room in my homestay house. I am living with an older couple, who have children and grandchildren living a stone's throw away.

I currently have the Swahili capability of a two-year-old (if that), and I must say it is incredibly humbling to be an adult but to be so helpless as far as language goes. I'm pretty sure this is what's called the "sink or swim" part of training.

Despite the language barrier, I feel very at home and taken care of. "Kidogo,

kidogo", I will learn, Mama says. Little by little.