Mariko experiencing the love

Collette & Mariko with Auntie Netta in Ocean View

This past Thursday I went straight from saying goodbye to my family to traveling to the Ocean View Homestay. Upon arrival, I was surprised by how nice some of the houses were in Ocean View, but still struggled to transition from having stayed in a nice hotel all week to staying in an apartment not much bigger than most college dorms. In retrospect, my initial impressions of the accommodations are irrelevant in comparison to the excitement and love that was offered to me and Collette the second we stepped into Auntie Netta’s home. It took very little time to discover that despite the many differences between us, we still had so much ground to form a connection on. The first night at the Ocean View community ballroom dance lesson was great, even though I, along with all of my young dance partners, decided that I have zero ballroom dancing ability. The next morning, we got to spend the day helping out at the Kindergarten Sports Day, which is more in my arena of skills. The hurricane winds that seemed strong enough to blow the kids away did not discourage them from having the time of their lives. And even though the wind prevented them from doing the planned activities, the amazing teachers and staff managed to meet everybody’s hype with lots and lots of foot races. I am still so surprised by how happy the children were to have me there, despite having never met any of them before.

The next morning our family took us to the beach, which gave me some time to get to know our host sister, who is the only other family member still living at home. This past Monday marked her first day of work through a new public works program, and I could tell she was extremely excited to have something to do during the day time, as Ocean View really does not offer that many forms of amusement that we take for granted in our everyday lives. She even asked me what time she should set her alarm for in order to have enough time to get ready for work, which felt weird because she seemed so much older and more mature than me. During that same conversation, she turned to me and said she was really sad that I had to leave the next day. I know people say stuff like that to each other all the time, but its so rare that someone genuinely expresses such appreciation and love for you in an incredibly short amount of time.

Most of the rest of the weekend was spent indoors, watching TV together. As Auntie Netta said a really touching parting prayer on Sunday morning, I was overcome with a flood of emotion. She said she loved us over and over, but I was not at all surprised by her words given how she had treated us since the moment we met. In conclusion, I am not here to glorify the Homestay and say it was the most comfortable, relaxing weekend. I am also not here to say that I know what its like to live in poverty now, just because I spent the weekend in a South African township. I’ll probably never know what its like to live in poverty, but I can say I genuinely know people who feel trapped by the injustices of it. I know what they do on a daily basis, I know their views on politics, and what they dream of doing if they had the money. But I also know that they don’t necessarily wish they could be in my shoes, because in the words of Auntie Netta, “we don’t have a lot of money or stuff in this house…we are pretty poor, but what we do have, is a lot, a lot of love,” which makes her richer than many of us Americans.