For the last two weeks of my time in Tanzania this year, I got to live and spend time with the wonderful Mtavangu family. My mama and baba were Angela and Norbert the latter of whom is a professor at the University of Dar es Salaam. Both of them work for most of the day but it was never lonely at home; they have three daughters (Benedicta, Lucy, and Teresa) living with them as well as Bibi (Grandma), Uncle David, and Julie who help a lot around the house. I was a little nervous before I moved into their home because the idea of living with another family (especially one that I knew nothing about) felt really foreign and slightly strange to me, considering I’ve never been in a homestay before and I didn’t know how my homestay family would feel about having two people thrust into their family and home for two weeks (they haven’t hosted any Princeton in Dar student before and they later admitted to me that they were also a little nervous). But when i met them and started living with them, I realized that they are extremely kind, genuine, and great people overall. Everyone was really welcoming and nice to me and really wanted to make us feel like part of the family. My only regret is not staying longer with them. About half the time I was in their home, I was away in Arusha and with class and going to the orphanage and Mwenge, I feel that I didn’t really get to spend as much time with them as I wanted to.
Christina and my host family
One of my favorite things about my homestay experience is getting to live with one of my fellow program participants, Christina. I didn’t really know Christina before living in a homestay together Originally, the plan was to have one person living in each homestay but there weren’t enough homestays available for each person to have one. I really likes living with another person because it felt nice to have someone there with you when you’re living with a family whom you barely know and you’re both going through roughly the same experiences. This was especially true for us; neither of us know too much Swahili and when there weren’t any English speakers at home, we could communicate with each other and be confused together (this is all just my personal opinion; I’m sure living on your own would be fine but personally, I would prefer living with another person). We also had a lot of time to talk to each other and bond every day during breakfast, on our walk to school, and during and after dinner We talked about our lives, the class, and our families in America; we even discovered that we love the same era of music (we both agree that Earth, Wind, and Fire and the Bee Gees are pretty top notch groups). I don’t think that I would’ve gotten to become friends with Christina or even know her if I hadn’t done this program and lived with her. That’s one of the great things about Princeton in Dar; I’ve met so many people who are very different and have different interests that I would not have met if it wasn’t for this program.
Christina and I holding a neighbor’s week-old baby