Manuela looking forward to reconnecting with host family

When we arrived in Ocean View for our homestay weekend we were immediately welcomed into someone’s home and had such an amazing dinner. The host auntie made us such an amazing dinner and she even set up a dinner table for all 26 of us, which was so nicely decorated. That same day we also visited a crèche that was built by the owner of the house to help the children from Ocean View. This was the crèche in which we volunteered for the next day during Valentines Day. On Valentine’s Day we decorated hearts with the children so that we could hand them out to the community and spread the love. I was so happy during this activity because it was such a small thing that put such a big smile to the people that received that hearts that I made with Shakier, the child I was paired up with for the day. Once we finished handing out the hearts we took the children to the farm across the street from ocean view it was crazy how it was only about a five-minute walk to the farm and many of the kids have never been there. It was so amazing seeing the kids’ smiles being able to feed all the chickens, rabbits, and hamsters of the farm. 

Val & Manuela with host family

When I met my host mother Heidi she was so welcoming from the moment Val and I walked into her home. We all just had an amazing and relaxing weekend. Heidi and Rashad, her husband, took us to long shore beach and then took us to see the sunset on top of the mountain- which had such an amazing view- we also watched Greece which was my first time ever watching it (still cant believe I had never seen it before). We also drove to Cox Bay were we all had lunch at this really good pizzeria it was also really nice because we were able to get to know each other even better and learn more about their culture and them learn about ours. We also went to the boat dock to have some ice cream and enjoy the view of the mountains, the ocean clear blue water and the ocean wind that was being blown especially since that was one of the hottest weekends ocean view has had this summer. If there was one thing Heidi always made sure of was the Val and I were eating and never hungry we at SO much that weekend but it was all such great food that I sure didn't mind; we had Heidi’s chicken burgers, her delicious chicken mushroom pasta which she gave us some to take home, we got home made donuts, Chinese food and like I said before pizza. It was so unfortunate that the homestay was so short because I had such an amazing weekend but we have made plans to meet up with Heidi for karaoke this month, which I am so excited for.  

I also went ballroom dancing!! Chantel, Courtney, Val, Kiya, Cassie and I all went ballroom dancing in the community center of Ocean View; the people there were so welcoming in allowing us to join the class. I had so much fun and it was my first time doing the waltz. I was so impressed with 3 of the boys that were there because they were all around 10 to 11 years old and they were fantastic dancers. Joshua, one of the boys, was one of my dance partners for the waltz part of the evening and he was fantastic he would always make sure to lead and when ever I made a mistake he would correct me as we danced around the room. It definitely became a workout session I was not expecting but it was totally worth it and at the end of the session we took a group picture, which is the one showing below.