After worrying about the language barrier, we met our host father and were relieved he spoke Spanish. Little did we know, we wouldn't see him for three days and were left with a shy and quechua-speaking family of a mother, grandmother, and three children. We had to come up with creative ways of communicating and connecting with our family; this included carrying an english to spanish dictionary to every meal and attempting to talk to the painfully quiet 10 and 12 year old girls who claimed they didn't speak Spanish. After a few games of slap jack and I-Spy, Naomi and Mary-Louise finally opened up to us. We learned they spoke Spanish very well and we were able to make jokes and bond with them.
A few days after we thought we met the whole family, we were surprised to learn there was a two year old boy we mistook for a girl and a three week old baby boy with no name. We quickly got to know the two year old when he openly went to the bathroom on the dirt floor in the kitchen and his parents only laughed. These awkward moments helped us build relationships with our host family that we will never forget.
--Cillie and Wallace
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