Homestay

As promised, here is the story of our wonderful homestay!  In the interest of space, I will only go into the details of the first day as that was the most exciting day!  Hamakuya, meaning town of chief Makuya, is made up of 19 sub-villages.  We were all divided into groups of four or five and sent to five of these lovely villages for a 4 day, 3 night stay.  Myself and four other students, three girls and two guys, stayed in a village tucked in the green hills of Hamakuya called Khavambe.  We were dropped off at the home of Regina, a warm and vibrant woman, and head of this homestead .  Before we could introduce ourselves we were whisked away by countless children and within minutes we all had a child clinging to our backs with gleeand our watches, sunglasses, jewelry, and cameras were the objects of fascination and instantly removed from our bodies.  The next moment, we were covered in a gaggle of girls fighting for the chance to braid our hair.  With our cameras and other various possessions running around the homestead, we were lead into the tiny hut in which we would be staying and we could hardly contain our awe.  The hut walls were lined with gorgeous traditional Venda skirts (“muenda”), jewelry, and headpieces.  In the fading daylight, the children introduced us to countless games and songs.

As the dinner hour approached we were summoned into the cooking hut for our first cooking lesson.  The boys were permitted to watch but could not participate in the cooking.  In Venda culture, women are responsible for the cooking, while the men do the dishes following each meal.  Our first lesson was making a South African favorite called Pap, with which we were all familiar by this time.  Never underestimate the work it takes to mix maize meal and water over a hot fire.  Our host mother had quite the laugh as each of us attempted to stir the Pap in just the right fashion, trying to duplicate her speed-of-light expert strokes.  Our first real culture shock of our stay came at supper time when we found ourselves on the floor surrounded by all the children, separated by gender, and in complete silence without utensils or plates.  All the food was separated into two communal bowls each, one for the boys, and one for the girls.  We looked to our translator for guidance on how we were supposed to eat our meal and within seconds, hundreds of tiny hands had dug into the food.  We quickly realized we were expected to follow suit and with some hesitation, began to eat our meal.

The next day, with the children all at school we were able to have a quiet morning with our host mother and sought relief from the searing heat in any spots of shade we could find. Part of our task during these homestays was to interview local homesteads about water use for another faculty research project in the area.  I could go on for hours on just this experience alone and how desperate an issue water is in this area of the world, but if you’re interested to hear more about this specifically, let me know!  Here are some extra pictures from our stay in Khavambe!  Be sure to check out the newly uploaded pictures to the last few posts!

grinding peanuts

drawing "tattoos" with gel pens

Showing off the goodies I brought for them

Returning for a visit...

...they were very excited to see me!

This entry was posted on Thursday, April 12th, 2012 at 11:23 am and is filed under Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.

2 Responses to “Homestay”

1. Caroline says:

   April 13, 2012 at 1:22 am

   This is so incredibly awesome!!!!! Love your photos 🙂

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