Crying in an Outhouse: My African Bonding Experience.

Mwakiwasha Village is what you think of when someone says Africa.

I lived with them for a weekend of my life, and during that weekend I experienced a list of emotions that seem so contradictory until you live them. It was awesome, hard, rewarding, lonely, eye opening, and full to the max of rice.

When Brett dropped us off on Friday morning with two water bottles, some kilos of rice, and a mosquito net, we didn't really know what was coming. We knew that we would each live with a different family, and we were to work along side them, eat meals with them, and try to be a part of their lives.

That task wouldn't have been easy in the states, where different family habits might be weird to overcome. In Tanzania, when your new family speaks Swahili, you are even farther separated. You can't adequately explain that you want to help them cook, or figure out how to tell them for the thousandth time that you are fine just sitting on the ground with the kids.

How was I going to relate to a family of 9 that lives in a house smaller than my apartment? Do I try to understand what it feels like to live on a meal of rice every single day? What can I find that we have in common?

Well I can say on this side of the weekend that it was hard. But wonderful. I didn't wear a watch and I tried my hardest to not think about the time that was ticking by ever so slowly.

I loved playing with the children and helping Mama Mateo to do the dishes. I somewhat enjoyed sharing a very small bed with two children every night, and I hated eating rice. I missed being able to speak English to anyone who understood me, and I did in fact tear up in the choo (the Swahili word for bathroom). But then I remembered something incredibly important.

I am in Africa with a family who has welcomed me into their home with open arms. Their hospitality when they had so little showed me how I should act towards others when in comparison I have so much.

And now the part that you have certainly been waiting for, the pictures.