Moving in with the Host Family

I was terrified to move in with a host family. Mostly, it was because I don’t speak French at all, but there was also the integrating-into-local-customs thing and the what-if-they-don’t-like-me thing.




Luckily, my host family’s pretty cool – other friends have had worse experiences (rats, people laughing at their French in a mean way), so I’m very happy with my famille hote. I moved in with them a couple of days ago, and for the most part they seem really patient and fun. I have a papa and a maman (that’s what I’m supposed to call them), and then four sisters who range from 17-22. Three of the sisters are fairly shy, so it’s taking a lot for me to get them to talk… I think they’re happy I’m with them, but it’s tough to make conversation when you only know greetings. I managed to talk to the youngest last night, and she ended up giving me a henna tattoo on my hand – I think that means we’re friends now.



The other sister, Madjidath, is totally badass – she’s really into teaching me French, she’s outgoing, and she’ll come just keep me company while I eat dinner (most of the other family members eat really late, so I eat alone a lot of the time). And there’s a family friend named Misturah who comes and visits every day – she’s also really patient and wants to learn English, so we’re teaching each other.



My maman is one of Papa’s two wives, the older of the two. Polygamy is fairly normal here, so many of my fellow trainees also have multiple wives. Usually, the wives work together and divide the work so that it’s easier for all of them. Unfortunately, Papa’s second wife really dislikes Maman, to the point that she refuses to respond when I say hello because I’m part of Maman’s family. It’s a tense situation, but we don’t see Wife #2 all that much since each family has a floor, so everything’s cool.



My room’s on top of the house, a little apartment with a bathroom (running water!) and a bedroom just for me. Three windows, so good ventilation, plenty of room for my water filtering/boiling equipment, bed and lockable trunk. There’s even a table so I can study. I had a run-in with a giant spider the first night I was here, but I failed to kill it and haven’t seen it since… I guess I’ll get used to having a free range tarantula as a pet.


Updates: the other wife said hello to me last night!  Minor victory, but I'm finding that it's really important to celebrate minor victories here.  And communication is getting better little by little -- I still don't have a lot of words, but I'm getting better at forming them into sentences.  Going with the family to a birthday fete on Sunday, so I'll let you know how that goes.