I was outside in the courtyard when the power went out. Being lucky to reside in a home with electricity at all during homestay, I didn’t mind when the power was unpredictable.
It was silent and dark. There are few quiet moments, and when they happen, you just grab onto them. I stood outside in the night and my host sister found me looking up.
“Do you like stars?” She asked, in Kiswahili.
“Yes, I really like stars.” I responded.
And I just thought, of the few drops that I understood linguistically in the sea of things I’ve yet to learn about Tanzanian culture after being here only a month, that I’m glad that I knew the word for star. The East African view of the Milky Way is otherworldly, and it was even more beautiful in the company of my Tanzanian sister.
