BP 3 (Homestay Reflection) - GS

As I transition to the flat, I will remember the moments that I spent with Peggy, my host aunt. I would not describe my overall experience in the homestay as a positive one because I did not feel entirely integrated into the family. Our host parents would sometime come home so late that we were in bed before they arrived. We only ate dinner together maybe 5 or 6 times and even when we did, we were eating in front of a television, rather than talking to each other. However, Peggy was always there when we arrived home, talked to us about her family, life in Ndola, and her job. She made sure that I feel welcomed.

            Because Lexi and I were so grateful for all that Peggy did for us in the past month, we wanted to surprise her with a bouquet of flowers and a heartfelt card. When we gave them to her, she had the biggest grin on her face. She was telling us how much she was going to miss us, how she felt like we had become her daughters, and that we needed to stay in contact with her while we were not together, and of course we felt the same way. We did not really have pictures of together or of our family in general and I suggested that we take one, just the three of us. Peggy, who was wearing her house clothes, quickly changed into a dress and undid her hair from the bonnet that she usually wears. Lexi and I were fine with taking the picture inside, which has limited lighting, but Peggy wanted a nice landscape for the picture so she made us go outside. We go to the front of the house and start taking our pictures. Peggy ensures that there were multiple angles for the shots and makes us change positions as well. As soon as Lexi sent the pictures to her, she made one of them her profile picture on WhatsApp.

            From my impression, my family did not understand the expectations of a host family. People in other home stays would spend time with them and invite them to events. In our reflections, some would share that they had impressionable conversations with their families, whereas whenever we came home, we would only watch Zee World. It was easy to get Peggy a gift for all that she did for us and the mark that she made for our experience, however, we did not give our host parents one because we never really had a real conversation with them. It was even hard to interact with our little sister Bupe. She never really seemed interested in talking with us and would only watch Zee World for fun. We got her a cake because it was her birthday while we were in Livingstone but that was more of an effort to relate to her. So far, I feel more at home at the flat, but I am happy that I was able to experience the home stay portion.