Meeting My Host Family

All 62 of us were crammed into 2 busses. They really cram people into their transportation. I have seen a family of 6 on a motorcycle, I kid you not. Anyway as we were making the hour long journey to what would be our home for the next 2 months. I was getting increasingly more nervous. We were given a photo of our families the day before. Our families were given a photo of us. The idea was that we, the trainees, would be herded into the room where our families were waiting and we were supposed to find each other. As the ride got longer and we got closer I kept thinking that I would not be able to find them and if I did what on earth was I going to say to these people. I didn’t even speak their language.

We get there far too quickly. Sometimes when I am all nervous and anxious I just wish the ride would go on forever, we would never arrive to the destination. We all started piling out of the vans and the next thing I know we are entering the room. I slowly watched the people in front of me being picked out of the crowd. I felt everyone eyes scan me but only for a second “Is she mine?...No” and on to the person behind me.

I saw my papa standing tall and confident. He smiled at me and nodded his head a little when I looked at him questioningly. I went up to him and he shook my hand. They love to do that here, shake hands. I love that about Benin. I was expecting the families to be going crazy, falling all over us. That is what the volunteers told us to expect. “They are going to hug and kiss you and you will instantly be one of the family.” But all the families seemed pretty reserved and almost as nervous as us. My papa speaks English. And that is how he greeted me. “Hello, how are you?” “You speak English?” I said and thought “oh no” I knew it would be too easy to use English but that was a problem I would have to deal with later. Now I had the problem of dealing with what on earth I was going to say to him. It would have almost been easier if he didn’t speak English, then we could mask the silence by the language barrier.

Luckily a lot of long boring speeches started pretty quickly when everyone had found their families. The speeches were in French but it didn’t matter what language they were in I knew they were dull. All I could think about was how bad I had to pee. I had to pee on the way over in the bus. I thought I could sneak off before we met our families but no such luck. After there were cocktails and snacks and I told my family I was going to the bathroom. I found the bathroom and locked the door. When I went to unlock the door however it wasn’t as easy. The door would not open.

The only thing I could do was laugh nervously while I tried to get the door opened. The party was going on at a perfect distance to be loud enough not to hear me yelling. I started pounding on the door wondering how long it would take my family to figure out there was something the matter. Finally somebody heard me. I luckily could say that I didn’t speak French in French. They tried to pound down the door and do this and that. More people started collecting outside of the door. They kept talking to me…all in French. I kept telling them I don’t speak French. I was thinking the whole party would notice. The bathrooms were just off to the side. Finally a word broke through that I knew…key. Okay! I slid it under the door, where their fingers were poking around. The door opened and a wave of air hit me. Just as I was walking out the door I saw my family walking towards the bathrooms. I shyly told my new Papa that I got locked in the bathroom. “You did?... Okay. Are you ready to leave?” And we left, just like that. He didn’t think it was funny or sad or anything.

We went to find my bags and got in the car. A Car is not a typical thing for a family to own here. We hit the road and my papa popped in Tracy Chapmen and I knew I was going to like him. “This is for you” he told me. We took a short tour of the town, including where my Mama worked so they could show me off.
When we pulled up to the house my papa honked the horn and my little brother opened the gate to get into the property. Almost all houses here are gated. I saw that the house was pink. There was a small yard and some colorful tropical plants growing around the yard. A dog jumped on me the second I got out the door. I said dog in French and everyone congratulated me. Everything was making me smile, it was all so perfect.