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Anne speaks unselfconsciously about "her"
grandmother, auntie, sisters, brother,
niece and nephews — members of the
family she bonded with in the town of
Iringa during her longest homestay. Her
command of Kiswahili leaped ahead during
this short time, and her self-confidence
soared. The family was told not to waver
from its daily routine when Anne was present.
As family members gathered their daily
firewood, or heated a baseball team's
worth of bath water at dawn, Anne helped
out.
In the afternoons after class, Anne
stopped at her family's small restaurant
in town to pitch in. Since the family
was ethnically half Indian, the smells
of curry spices and chicken filled the
air in the small kitchen, blending with
the billowing smoke from wood and coal
fires. When it was time to leave her family,
Anne says, "my sister gave me a beautiful
ring nice enough to have been used as
a wedding ring. They wanted me to have
it to remember them by. That was a huge
surprise.
"It was heartbreaking
to say goodbye. They are my extended family
now."
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