My Homestay

Since I’ve been in Morogoro, I’ve been staying in a homestay with a family and eating most of my meals at the home. The place here is very different from something that you would find in Canada. For starters, the number of people living here is much larger. Though I have not counted, my estimate would be about 15 to 20 people in this house.

The main people that I live with are Maka (He is the English speaker of the house, though he is still learning and communication can at times be difficult. I’m also pretty sure that he doesn’t really live here), his mother a.k.a. Mama Maka, and Eva (not really a sister, but that’s what they call her). There are also several people who rent rooms, but I don’t know their names (remembering names has been a problem for me here, since I have met so many people and don’t interact with them frequently or in situations where I need to know their names). There are three little boys in the house: James (the oldest at about 3), who smiles at me and will answer me if I ask him questions in Swahili, Peter and Abdul (the last two are pretty much terrified of me). Generally everyone here is nice and when my stuff was stolen, they were very supportive.

The house itself is large, but very basic. There is a wide hallway down the middle from the front to the back. At the front of the house there is a sitting room where I usually eat my meals. Along each side of the hallway are the rooms. Mine is at the back of the hallway. As I was told before I saw the room, I have a roof, but not a ceiling. In theory, I could throw a ball all the way to the front room of the house, since the walls do not go all the way up to the ceiling. I have a lock on my door and since the robbery I have think wooden boards on the windows (which were previously just mesh and cardboard).

I have a soft bed and a fan, table and chair in my room. The floors and walls are just concrete, but not too dirty. I have a light and a power outlet, though we get frequent outages (which often come at night and are annoying since I don’t get a breeze in from the window anymore).

Across the hall from my room is where we store the buckets of water (the water shuts off around 2 or 3 I think) and the washroom and bathing room. The washroom is not what one would expect back home, but it’s passable. The bathing room is really just a room with a tap and a drain (not even a shower). It’s been bucket baths (actually not that bad, and it saves a lot of water) since I’ve been here.

Beside the bathroom and bathing room is a side door to an outdoor area where all the dishes and clothes get washed (hand washing will be a whole other post) and hung. It’s also where I go to brush my teeth (“at least you have a bathroom sink!” – there’s a good inside joke for some of you). All in all, I’m dealing with the conditions here, and am able to feel clean and rested.

I wish I could add some pictures but so far I have not solved the mystery of the missing camera cord, so that will have to wait.