Sunday April 28
Hamakuya Homestay Day 3
Sunday morning again we woke up bright and early with the
roosters crowing at about 6am. Again the family was already up and about their
business. We had a much smaller following of children I think because many were
probably at church with their families.
After breakfast of tea and bread with peanut butter…we were
on our second container of PB by this point but mostly thanks to Innocent who I
think doesn’t get to eat meals that aren’t pap very often.
After breakfast, we hung out with the family and I loaned my
camera to some of the cute little kids who were nearby. I think they took about
a hundred pictures of Michelle and Katie sitting outside the
huts...
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| examples of the many photos of Michelle and Katie... |
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| mmmmmm roasted peanuts |
I was feeling antsy, conscious of the minutes or hours until I would leave,
feeling ready to take a shower, never having felt so dirty before, feeling
anxious to talk to my parents, never having felt so homesick or faraway before
(O’Sheen was right about homestays making you homesick!), but at the same time,
somehow feeling not ready to leave, not wanting to say goodbye to my host
family and the kids I’d met. I felt a sense of finality I don’t usually allow
myself to feel. I like thinking optimistically about the future, always
thinking theoretically, if not concretely, about when I will return to a place,
when I will reunite with people I have met and who have made an impact in my
life. Somehow, I could not anticipate a time when I would again see Bennett and
his family and their lovely neighbor kids. And that left a hollow feeling
inside me. I felt a necessity to spend as much time with them as possible, to
talk to them as much as possible.
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| kids taking pictures of Hope and me |
I
sat on a blanket and shelled peanuts with the old ladies and peanuts were again
roasted for a treat. We played with the kids some more, and then all of a
sudden, we saw one of the safari vehicles on the road; “X” was here to pick us
up. All the antsiness and readiness to leave was gone, and the five of us
grabbed hold of all the little kids and ran and hid behind one of the huts
almost instinctively. I felt like a little kid when my mom would come over to
my friend’s house to retrieve me after a day of playing and I would hide with
my friend to prolong our visit. We hid for several minutes and X actually had
to hunt for us, which he thought was quite funny and all the kids thought was
hilarious. We tiptoed around the circular hut keeping ahead of him just enough
so he couldn’t see us.
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| they wanted to take so many pictures. |
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| the kids still had my camera at this point... |
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| having some fun |
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| hiding from X |
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| the malnourished puppy we almost adopted |
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| hiding from X |
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| final meal of pap and moroho |
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| Our host family and us <3 |
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| Makuas, host family & co |
Nkhumeleni
had prepared one last meal of pap and moroho for us, which we ate with Innocent
and X. As grateful as I was for the food, I was glad that it was the last meal
of pap I would have to eat. And then I felt guilty and ashamed and realized
that I should just be grateful because so many millions of people only ever eat
pap for every meal for every day of their lives. Three days and the novelty had
worn off for me. We ate our lunch excitedly telling X about the weekend, but
also prolonging it so we didn’t have to leave. Then we made him take pictures
of us with our family and the kids we’d befriended over the weekend. And then
sadly carried our bags to the vehicle and got in. The kids and our host parents
waved goodbye and then ran down the road after us waving. We shouted "Tata" (goodbye) at them as long as we could. Bennett told X he’d
never spend a more enjoyable weekend in his entire life. I’m glad. It was one
of the top weekends in my life. A few tears rolled down our cheeks as we drove
off… X said he’d never seen such a sad goodbye after picking up kids from a
homestay…he’d never seen students and family grow so close; he said our family
and us must be special people. And we had to agree.
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| final farewell to my host family running behind us... |
He
asked us how many marriage proposals we’d received: only one serious one.
He
asked us if we’d had to behead a chicken: nope, only watch.
He
asked us if we’d eaten the local delicacy of Mopani worms: nope, we’d been
spared that terrifying snack.
Then
we drove to Tshikelini to pick up the other group from their homestay. Their
family and setup didn’t seem near as cool as ours had been. At first I thought
we were just biased, but then, after talking to all the other groups, we all
realized we’d had the best experience, the best family, and perhaps root of it
all, the best host dad by far! Go Bennett!
The Tshikelini group was just being served lunch, and so, to
be polite, we had to join our fellow Makuas in the hut but our guides and X
stood outside discussing their weekends. We sat down on the rug, and Kacky, a
girl in the Tshikelini group lifted the lid off the bowl of food as someone
else took the film off the plate of pap…and in the bowl were….Mopani worms! We all
shrieked. Kacky slammed the lid back down, but we realized with increasing
horror that the worms had to disappear or their host mom would be offended and
we’d leave on bad terms. So we each took a worm and crunch, ouch that was
definitely a spike…a leg…a squish…like nothing else I’ve never eaten. The taste
was actually delicious…I think I only tasted seasonings, not worm meat. But the
fact that it was worm made me horrified and grossed out. Someone said the word
worm as it was in my mouth being crunched and chewed and I almost lost it, gag
reflux started taking over, but I won. I ate a Mopani worm. It is something I
can cross off my bucket list of interesting African experiences. It is
something I can throw out when people ask what the oddest thing you’ve ever
eaten is. And it is something I will definitely never do again!
After the worm experience, the other group said goodbye to
their family, but they just waved goodbye at their doorstep and that was that.
(Clearly, our family was cooler…just saying.) We drove home comparing stories
and notes and all excited for our showers and some alone time. We even planned
showering order so we could begin immediately when we got back to Tshulu camp.
It was definitely the best shower of my entire life. I was sad to see my dirt
tan wash down the drain, but felt so clean afterwards (even though it took
another two showers to finish getting the dirt off…). Relatively, I was clean.
After another mid-afternoon lunch/snack at Tshulu, we were
given some alone time to journal. It was amazing. I didn’t realize it until
then, but I hadn’t been alone since I left my dorm room in Stellenbosch eight
days before. I wanted to have some privacy, so I wandered up the mountain
behind the camp and sat down near a pile of rocks in the sunshine where I was
all alone…but then I saw a giant ant, and I mean giant, it was an inch long and
really fat. It obviously wasn’t an ant because I don’t think they come that big…even
in Africa, but it was shaped like one. And then all I could think about was
scorpions, so I sprinted full speed ahead down the mountain and sat on the
porch outside my tent. Hope sat next to me journaling as well, but I’d take her
company over aloneness with the potential company of a scorpion any day of my
life!
In the early evening, we had a debriefing session about our
homestays, and as I said, our group clearly had the best experience of them
all. David asked us all to check our water samples one more time, and sadly,
one of ours had turned blue. It was the one from the Lamvi hand pump where all
the women and children had been collecting water. And where they had said the
water tasted sour…but they used it for everything anyway. After this, my group
spent another hour raving about how awesome our host family and our guide were.
The other groups had a lot of complaints and some good stories. We just had
tons of happy and interesting and exciting stories except our tearful farewell
(and the scorpion of course).
For dinner, that night, we were served…you guessed it – pap.
I could not believe it. And was kind of horrified. And then was horrified at
myself for being horrified. Selfish and spoiled. But I am pretty sure I had an
actual corn baby in my belly because despite its widespread popularity as a
food-staple, the human digestive system cannot actually digest corn. So I had a
mild tummy ache from all of it.
After dinner, a local guitarist / celebrity / musician
played songs for us around the fire and we all hugged and told stories and
reminisced on the weekend and discussed our fears about going to crazy,
bustling urban Johannesburg after our peaceful 8 days in rural peace of Kruger
and Hamakuya. Eventually, his playing and singing turned to us dancing and
being silly. But then I had to call it a day pretty early as we had to report
for duty at 5am the next morning to begin making our way to Joburg.
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