Home Stay!

During my first week in Nagishot, I did a home stay and lived with a Didinga family for five days. The purpose of the home stay is to be able to observe and live with a family to learn about the culture, customs, and language here. It was challenging at times, but I’m so thankful for the chance to have gotten to know the family and have my first friends here in Nagishot :) My home stay “mama” is Julietta and she has 4 children: Ya-ya (17), Night (15), Dennis (12), and Jackson (8).

While I was staying with them, I “helped” with a lot of their daily tasks. They were really good about showing me different things and teaching me. I knew they could also tell when things were too heavy or I was too tired, because they would always give me less :) Some of the daily things we did were getting water from the well, going to the marketplace for flour or yeast, buying vegetables, cooking the meals, and washing the dishes. Usual meals included ahat (the Didinga word for “ugali” which is basically water and flour) and some kind of green vegetable; or once we had rice and beans. They also taught me how to make mendazi for breakfast! (It’s a kind of sweet fried bread). I even helped (more like watched) Ya-ya kill one of their chickens for lunch one day. That was definitely a special treat and really sweet of them! They also showed me how to harvest corn, collect coffee beans, and ground flour out of corn with stones. I definitely got to see a glimpse of what daily living looks like. Some of my favorite moments were watching the family laugh together around the fire at night, reading scripture with some of the kids, and the one-on-one times with the two older girls.

Now five days of a home stay can be filled with a whole lot of awkwardness and discomfort. And as I experienced those moments, I felt the most convicted about whether or not I truly love the Didinga people. My heart was really challenged that week, and I think also discouraged at realizing my lack of love, selfishness, and idol of comfort. There were moments when “preach the Gospel to yourself” had such new meaning for me.

But there were also moments where God showed so much grace in how He encouraged and strengthened me. Sometimes at night I would feel so uncomfortable that I just wanted to go to sleep; but I would look up at the stars and be reminded that God placed every single star up there, and in the same way he placed, knows, and loves every person here in Nagishot. One night we all went to bed particularly early and I couldn’t fall asleep, so I just laid there and prayed for their family. I also prayed for God to help me surrender all to Him (I Surrender All). Also, as I was singing Fall Afresh by Jeremy Riddle in my head, it started raining and just felt like kind of a fresh start.

Their family seems so hungry and interested in learning more about Christ. Please join me in praying for true conviction, repentance and growth in their lives!

The family's tukle

From the inside of their tukle

Harvesting Corn

Grinding flour

Grinding flour from dried corn

Collecting coffee beans!

Drying coffee beans

The way to the water well

Showing me their fields

The mom, Julietta

Jackson

Ya-Ya and Night

Oken, Jackson and Ya-Ya