Homestay at Baba Idi's House

This was my home-stay family, minus Baba Philipo. I had such an amazing day! Anna and I were greeted by Mama who took us into her house. She has two daughters, Ester and Amanda, and one son, Walter. The boy on the left is a family friend named Hameer. We started off hand washing laundry. I kept doing it wrong so Amanda had to keep showing me. After that we went into a food storage room and helped shell some peas. It was interesting to do this because many of the peas we were shelling had larvae and maggots in them. We didn't eat those ones of course, but it was just strange to open up peas and actually see that. We took a break from shelling peas and had the most amazing chai tea (which actually is redundant because in Swahili chai means tea). After the tea we went to help cook lunch. This included us trying to peel the skin off tomatoes, try to cut meat without a cutting board, flip peas in a woven dish, and try to stir ugali. Anna and I were so bad at everything so they just laughed and told us "enough" and we sat and watched them cook. I'm pretty sure they thought we would be awful wives because we couldn't do anything that the youngest daughter could. After that they brought the food into the living room and all of the women ate. It was a delicious meal of white rice, peas, and meat with an awesome tomato and onion sauce. The young boys ate in the bedroom and Baba Philipo ate his dinner by himself after we were done. It is strange how different Tanzanian culture is in that respect. After lunch we all hung out, looked at the duka (store) that the family owned and shelled some more peas I assume were for dinner. While we were doing that a bunch of their friends came over and talked to us. There was one woman who was very good at English and could translate a lot of what we said to the others. She kept asking us if we had the same vegetables as them and if we had the same diseases as them. It was cool to see what they were learning in higher education that we learned in elementary and middle school. Their book included an overall biology like cells, nutrition, and the environment. We reluctantly left before dinner when Paulo and Boniface picked us up. It was truly and amazing experience that I will never forget. I hope someday I can come back to Tanzania and see how they are and where they go in life.