Breaking Into My New Home

This week my host mom, Victoria, is the teacher on-duty. She must go to school very early in the morning and gets back a little later every day this week. I have decided to walk myself to and from school each day, and definitely look forward to my 10 minute daily adventure.

Today, when I got home at 2 o’clock, I banged on the gates to our house so that the helper or my host brother would come unlock the door and let me in. No answer. I called, and called….but still no answer. Finally, with sweat dripping down my whole body and exhaustion from the anticipation of my afternoon nap setting in….I decided I had I was just going to have to let myself in. So, naturally, I hopped the fence (very grateful that Victoria’s fence doesn’t have shards of glass or barbed wire to keep intruders from doing such a thing). I was a little indignant from having stood outside for 15 minutes trying to get someone to come open the gate, that I marched straight to my room, and took a shower without informing the helper or my host brother that I was home.

While getting dressed, I heard someone else knocking at the door. And knocking, and knocking….I knew no one could hear them besides myself….and the knocks were getting more and more impatient. I threw on some clothes and ran to the gate to open in….but as I was opening the gate to let them in, I realized I had no clue who was on the other side of the gate and didn’t have the language skills to ask them to state their business. Instead….I just stammmered….in Kiswahili……”Welcome….you are here……who?....” as two forty-ish year old men with bicycles and a couple bags entered our home.

Realizing that I might have just let in a bunch of robbers or something….I quickly skipped off to find the helper so she could tell me if they were friends or foes. Of course, I had to first explain why I was home and how I got in….and then ask if she knew them. But being that she only speaks kiswahili….it was mostly just an exchange of hand signals, body language and tone of voice. But in any case, she seemed to be expecting them.

An hour or so later when my host brother and I were heading to the beach for an afternoon swim, I asked about the men from earlier, and why they were here. He said, “Oh, they are here to install the electric bell so we can hear when people are waiting at the gate to come inside….”