Rural Homestay

During our trip to northern Namibia we had our third and final homestay of the semester. Everyone in the group from CGE was placed in a home around the village of Oniipa. This was the rural homestay, and was supposed to provide a different experience from the previous homestays in Soweto and Katatura. I know that, for a lot of people, mentioning staying in a rural home in agricultural Namibia for a week brings up images of African huts and no plumbing or running water. Let me make this very clear: there is a difference between a rural home and a traditional home. The traditional Oshiwambo home is a collection of huts forming a compound, with individual huts serving as the kitchen, storage room, bedrooms, etc. However, almost everyone in the group was in a rural home. My home for the week was fairly normal (for Namibia) house. One large brick/cement building with a kitchen, family room, bathroom, and several bedrooms. It was rural in that Oniipa is a rural village, we had to drive on sand roads and through some cornfields to get to my house, and my family had about 30 chickens running through the yard, along with their mango and guava trees. Although I did have to master the bucket shower, there was running water in the house (the shower was broken), and the food was pretty typical for Namibia (meat, pasta, rice at every meal).

My home for 8 days!

My Host family:

Gottlieb and Selma: They were my host parents, and they were really nice, but I never really connected with them. Selma just finished her master’s degree so she was in South Africa for the week, so I only saw her for two of the nights I was there. But she was fun, and made me feel really included. The first time I met her she was asking me questions about my school, and then wanted to know how far away PLU was from the University of Washington. At first I was a little skeptical, because most people here only know Washington as Washington D.C. But then I found out that she communicates with the UW for work (she teaches nursing at UNAM)! I was really excited, because it’s nice to find someone here who knows something about where I’m from. Gottlieb was also nice, but he worked the overnight shift at the hospital in Oniipa (7pm to 7am) four of the nights I was there, so I never really saw him on those days. This family also had more traditional gender roles, so there were several nights where he sat in the living room watching tv, and then had his dinner brought to him.

The whole family was pretty protective of me. They wouldn’t let me walk anywhere by myself, which was a little frustrating. They also kept trying to get me to eat more! I would eat a small breakfast and tuck some fruit in my purse for a snack later in the day, but then Gottlieb would get home to drive me to town for the day and would try to get me to eat more. This was the homestay I felt most at home in, but I felt like I didn’t have any independence like I’m used to having.

Sara: Sara was my 17 year old host cousin. She’s originally from Windhoek, but is going to school in Oniipa and so is living with her relatives. We got pretty close during the week, because she was the only one I really talked to most of the week. We cooked together at night, and hung out while she was doing other chores I wasn’t allowed to help with. We talked about school, and the future, and gender and cultural differences, along with just life in general.

Sara cooking dinner

Reuben: Reuben is in 8^th grade at the Oshigambo Lutheran Secondary School. It’s a boarding school, so I only saw him on Friday afternoon and Saturday, before he headed back to school on Sunday. He was full of energy though. On Saturday afternoon I went into town with him and Sara. We went to a hotel and got snacks at the restaurant there. It wasn’t too exciting, but it was good to get out of the house for a little bit and see more of the area.

Ombili: Ombili was in first grade at one of the elementary schools in Oniipa. I didn’t see him much because he was usually playing with the neighbors.

Ombili and Lalia in the truck outside

Lalia: Lalia (I’m not positive if that was her name, it was difficult to communicate with her a lot of the time) was my little sister. She was almost 5, and didn’t really speak English. But she decided she liked me on the first night I was there and would come and stand next to me in the kitchen or imitate the way I ate. She was definitely sassy, and had good faces and comebacks to the times her brothers would make fun of her. Every night we ate dinner on the couches in the living room, and she always came and sat next to me to eat. There was one night she started whispering secrets to me while we were eating dinner, and I would whisper back. It was really sweet, but we couldn’t understand each other at all.

Lalia liked to pose like this in most of my pictures

Another interesting note about this homestay: We had Oshiwambo language lessons in preparation for the homestay. I learned about enough to be able to greet people, but that was all. However, I would greet people in Oshiwambo and then it was like that flipped a switch in my brain. I knew I wasn’t supposed to speak English anymore, but the default language for non-English is not Oshiwambo, it’s Spanish. So I would start thinking in Spanish, with Spanish grammar and vocabulary, but with a few random Oshiwambo words thrown in. I guess it was good, because it made me practice my Spanish for a few days!