As part of our training, we went on a homestay - living with a local Namibian family for 24 hours. It was an interesting experience and offered a lot of insight into how our community lives.
First, we have to deal with the concept of "Africa Time." Africa time means that things happen when they happen, and not necessarily when planned. Years ago, back when I was an undergrad, I knew a man who did a missionary tour through some part of Africa. He had explained about Africa Time. When he wanted to meet the town elders for a chance to bring his message, he discovered that the meeting wouldn't happen until everyone was ready. While waiting for some to arrive, others would leave.
Eventually it took four days, but everyone ended up in the same place as the same time.
As our instructor told us, when it comes to Africa, there's "Now," "now-now," and "Now-now-now." The more nows the more likely something is going to happen in the near future (but anything over three "nows" is just being silly.).
Our homestay family, led by a local math teacher, were supposed to pick us up at 11 a.m. We finally got picked up at 4:30 p.m. That's Africa Time for you.
We were paired off for the homestays, and my partner and I asked for a homestead placement (basically a local farm) instead of staying in the local village.
The homestead is a series of small buildings that comprise a "house." The living room is an outdoor area with a fire pit and logs around for sitting on. When you enter the homestead, you can walk directly to the back through the driveway or you can walk through this "living room." It's rude to not walk through the living room even though the roofless, fenced area is obviously empty.
The kitchen is in a separate area, and comprises two small buildings and a fire pit. Yes, they have a propane stove, but they don't have running water. Some of the buildings are round traditional huts with thatched roofs. Others are concrete squares that may be made up of more than one room.
The toilet is, as you might expect, a pit toilet just on the outer edge of the homestead.
The homestead has electricity, but only from a solar cell. Our host, Tate (Tah-tay) Billy, insisted that we watch TV with him, even though it was just a documentary about owls.
Like everyone else in the area, Tate Billy is waiting for the rainy season to start. His son John mentioned that even in his lifetime (perhaps 18 years) that the rains have come noticeably later and weaker each year. The national newspaper, The Namibian, seems to have one story each day about the pending drought and water rationing.
Tate Billy gets his water from a communal tap that is a few kilometers from his homestead. While we were visiting, Tate Billy had to go to the tap himself to pay the local water fees. Then and only then were his sons allowed to fill their containers.
Like most of the people that we met during our visit, Tate Billy and his wife Meme Loita are decent people. I realized early on that they don't have a lot of photos of themselves and that he was proudly showing us each photo that he does have (about a half dozen). So we made a point of taking pictures of the whole family and will send them to Tate Billy.
We visited local neighbors, including the local pastor, and along the way crossed paths with others in our group. It was odd, meeting and departing with these familiar faces. The oddest time occurred when we were on our way to church.
We were all in the back of one pickup truck (four volunteers and our extended families), but it stopped in the middle of a field, and Tate Billy, Tomas - a WorldTeach volunteer - and I dismounted. We watched the truck (and our friends) drive away, A few minutes later, the hut that we had been dropped off at opened up as a local bar.
We wouldn't see our friends again for about 8 hours.
We knew that we were supposed to be back at our residential school by 1 p.m. Sunday, but again, life gets in the way. I had offered to take a picture of Tate Billy and Meme Loita, but coordinating that all meant that we had to wait for a fence post to harden, Meme Loita to make lunch and everyone to get into their best clothes.
All told, from the time that we started talking about heading back to the school to the time that we actually set out was almost 4 hours. Even still, we were nearly the first ones back (Last to leave the day before).
Such is Africa Time.
— SGP
