Day 1: My New Home

Dr. Preko's home

During my stay in Swaziland, I will be staying with a host family which happens to be the family of our foreign mentor for my research project, Dr. Peter Preko. He is away in Mozambique right now and will return this upcoming Friday. In the meantime, Dr. Preko's wife Lena is our primary host until he returns. She picked up up from the Matsapha Airport in Manzini and took us to her home.

                                                                        Top: View from the front of the house                                                                                                                                         Bottom: View from the back of the house                                          

So for the next three months, I will be staying in the guest house of my foreign mentor, Dr. Peter Preko. His house is absolutely beautiful! And it's right in the valley! Lena prepared a  mean for Chantal, Dr. Pauline Jolly (the MHIRT director), and I, which was beef and rice. I noticed that the fruit juice here in Swaziland is thicker and more natural than the juices in the U.S. The food was really good! Lena also gave us pound cake with our meal.

 

First African meal prepared by host mother, Lena

The Guest House

Chantal and I will be staying in Dr. Preko's guest house, which is right behind the main house. Above, you will see the entrance of the guest house followed by the pictures of the inside of the house. It's pretty small, but I absolutely love it! It's very cute and cozy. I have the top bunk and Chantal has the bottom!

Our host family furnished the entire guest house bought us a television, home appliances, towels, linens, etc. Leena has been extremely according. There is Wi-Fi within the main house, but the signal is really weak within the guesthouse so we have to sit in the dinning room inside the house or go in front of the house to get a strong sign. We asked Lena about how we would go about washing our clothes, and she told us that a maid comes to clean the house, including our guest house, and she will be washing our clothes. I was pretty surprised by that. Although I prefer washing my own clothes, it feels pretty good to come home with clothes already washed and dried. I believe they have a washing machine, but the clothes are air-dried outside and I believe our undergarments are dried inside the house.