Blog Post #3 - At Home in Lilayi - CP
As I reflect on my homestay experience in the past month, it only solidified to me what an incredible and amazing opportunity it was to spend time with a host family. The homestay component has been one of the most, if not the most, fulfilling aspect of my experience in-country.
Starting from day one, I was afforded with a window into the life of the people in Zambia just from having conversations with my host parents and getting to know them better. I learned that Zambians often have to become “forced entrepreneurs” in that they often have side businesses in addition to their full-time jobs in order to subsist and make a living. My host dad, Mr. Wam, does this by making a “small” chicken farm in his home about 30 minutes away from the city. His “small” chicken contained more chickens than I’d ever seen my life before.
Throughout the month, I got to learn so much about Zambian culture through the meals that we would prepare and eat with our host mom. Compared to our peers in the IAD program also in Lusaka who were not staying in host families, we got the full experience when it came to Zambian cuisine. I got to eat the whole spectrum of the different foods in Zambia from simple roasted chickens to capenta, of course always served with nshima. Andrew and I both freaked out when we found out what we just bit into was ox liver. These foods reminded me of the strange foods back home in Vietnam, when foreigners too would often freak out if they had to eat pig heart or cow tongue, which are some of my favorite foods back home. These experiences are things I would have never had if I weren’t in a homestay.
But perhaps one of the most memorable and fulfilling times during my homestay was when Andrew and I cooked foods from our culture for the family. The activity that we came up with to fill up our free time became opportunities for us to share our cultures with our host family. I don’t think I will ever forget their surprised and confused faces when I served them chicken broth soup, perhaps the same faces we made when we were served ox heart with nshima for the first time.
As I write this reflection from my time at the Wams’, it is the small little moments that I’m reminded of and will stick with me for the rest of the program as well as after. What I will hold onto with me from this past month is the relationship that I’ve built with Mr. Wam and Auntie Sharon, the things that I’ve learned about Zambia and Zambian culture, the memories of sharing my culture with them and seeing the similarities but also differences in our cultures, and the moment I realized that I felt at home in a country I had never been to before.
Starting from day one, I was afforded with a window into the life of the people in Zambia just from having conversations with my host parents and getting to know them better. I learned that Zambians often have to become “forced entrepreneurs” in that they often have side businesses in addition to their full-time jobs in order to subsist and make a living. My host dad, Mr. Wam, does this by making a “small” chicken farm in his home about 30 minutes away from the city. His “small” chicken contained more chickens than I’d ever seen my life before.
Throughout the month, I got to learn so much about Zambian culture through the meals that we would prepare and eat with our host mom. Compared to our peers in the IAD program also in Lusaka who were not staying in host families, we got the full experience when it came to Zambian cuisine. I got to eat the whole spectrum of the different foods in Zambia from simple roasted chickens to capenta, of course always served with nshima. Andrew and I both freaked out when we found out what we just bit into was ox liver. These foods reminded me of the strange foods back home in Vietnam, when foreigners too would often freak out if they had to eat pig heart or cow tongue, which are some of my favorite foods back home. These experiences are things I would have never had if I weren’t in a homestay.
But perhaps one of the most memorable and fulfilling times during my homestay was when Andrew and I cooked foods from our culture for the family. The activity that we came up with to fill up our free time became opportunities for us to share our cultures with our host family. I don’t think I will ever forget their surprised and confused faces when I served them chicken broth soup, perhaps the same faces we made when we were served ox heart with nshima for the first time.
As I write this reflection from my time at the Wams’, it is the small little moments that I’m reminded of and will stick with me for the rest of the program as well as after. What I will hold onto with me from this past month is the relationship that I’ve built with Mr. Wam and Auntie Sharon, the things that I’ve learned about Zambia and Zambian culture, the memories of sharing my culture with them and seeing the similarities but also differences in our cultures, and the moment I realized that I felt at home in a country I had never been to before.
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