Homestay in M-town

Teammates being welcomed with flower necklaces by one host

Orientation week is over. The next big thing for our new team is homestays.  This is where we send our teammates out into different villages around the island.  They live with a local family for a whole week.  The hope is that during this time they will bond with islanders and learn a lot about what daily life looks like for people here.  They walk around, play games, cook meals, and do whatever their host does.  It’s an intense week (especially since they don’t know much of the local language).

On Tuesday, I (Tom) went around to the different villages to check-in on things and make sure the hosts knew what was expected.  This went well until I got to M-town.  I teach English in M-town and had asked my students if they would be willing to host our two single ladies.   Two different students expressed their interest-- everything seemed great!

But when I got to M-town there was a problem.  Instead of two people, I had three ladies who wanted our teammates to stay at their houses.  Their first solution was simple.  Simply have three people stay in M-town.  I told them that wasn’t possible; we only had two  single ladies.  Thats when things got messy.  There was a whole lot of arguing and gesticulating.  At one point someone was ready to storm out, but people brought him back to the discussion.  They argued and argued, and I worried that this was going to cause a real rift within this community.  Then suddenly things were resolved.  I still don’t really know how.

Megan, kids & ladies on stage at the certificate ceremony

Later that day we received two visits to our house from people in M-town.  They were afraid that I had been offended and wanted to assure me that all was resolved.  I assured them that I was not offended and apologized if I had been to blame for some of the confusion.  They assured me that I had done nothing wrong and that everything was fine-- though no one was very clear exactly which two women they were supposed to stay with now.

So on Wednesday we took our teammates to M-town for their homestay.  As we settled them in and made introductions to their two lady hosts, we mentioned the third woman who had wanted to host but we only got awkward looks from the other M-towners.

Thursday we had the certificate ceremony for the English students in M-town.  As we waited for the ceremony to start, our teammates were led in by their proud hosts. They were both dressed in matching traditional clothes with henna designs on their hands and enough eyeliner to make Cleopatra blush.  Their hosts were having a good time with them.

Enjoying snacks after the ceremony

The third woman didn’t show up to get her certificate. Her husband (the organizer of the English class) was all smiles and said she was “sick”, but we wondered if she felt slighted. We exchanged texts and got a phone call from her that reassured us of our friendship. At least, she wasn’t mad at us.

PRAYERS ANSWERED
We are glad that our teammates are doing okay on their homestays.  We are also glad to start feeling a bit more settled after all the craziness of the first week.  We’ve had some wonderful and exciting conversations with a good island friend, Ma Imani, who used to read the same book we do and has just started reading it again.  She talked about feeling like she’s waking up after a long sleep! We are very excited for her. 


PRAYERS REQUESTED
Some of our teammates are sick on homestay.  Pray for our one teammate who is getting over a virus and for another who’s throat has been sore.  Pray for strong stomachs as many are experiencing tummy troubles and diarreha (especially the babies).  Even a good homestay is challenging.  Pray that all our teammates would persevere through this time and learn a lot from their adventures and ordeals.  Pray for our first team meeting this week.  Pray for a few finishing touches to the houses.  One house needs some plumbing work and the plumber has been very slow in getting the work done.  Also, one house is waiting for a refrigerator.  We would really like everything to be set before they get home from homestays on Wednesday. Also pray for us as we try to complete the paperwork for getting our team’s longterm visas (they got short-term visas on arrival)- pray for good favor. Finally Megan’s back has had a small relapse with all the strain of orientation week, unexpected traveling and setting up four homes-- pray for a quick recovery.