Over the weekend we were all fortunate enough to stay at a Kenyan home. We started Saturday with a great leadership program with Dr. Karambu were we all learned how we react instead of respond to our surroundings. We learned this through a balloon game where we were given a balloon and a toothpick. We were told to walk around the room with our balloon while thinking the balloon represented a dream of ours. Not keeping in mind what the balloon really represented we started popping the balloons. This taught us how our first instinct is to react to what is happening around us instead of really thinking about the meaning of the balloon.
Later that day, we were grouped into pair for our home stays, I was paired with Sola, Caitlin was with Dylan, Hanna was paired with Claire, Emma with Stella, Izzy with Megan and Bobby was with Wyatt. Once we created our care packages for the hosts we waited for our new families to come. Dropping everyone off at their new homes for the night was nerve-wracking but exciting. Yet the moment we started a conversation with our hosts the nerves just disappeared. After spending a night with a new family in a new home we all walked away very happy. I can’t speak for everyone but I know we all walked away from that experience with a new perspective of a few things. What I learned during my homestay is how hard parents work for their children. The family I stayed with lives in a very small house and worked really hard to make money. While talking to the couple about their sons who were all in school at the time made me realize how much these parents sacrificed so that they could send their youngest son to a private boarding school and both their older sons through college. I never fully understood how much parents work to pay for a house, school, food, clothes, etc. because I never had to worry about not having them. But after that experience, I realized how lucky I am to have hard-working parents who have stable jobs and can pay for my education. The homestay was a really great experience and I enjoyed every minute of it. I think we all learned something and are all super happy we were able to learn from it.