Xhosa Easy Homestays

The aim of the homestay is to give you an authentic and hands on experience of life in the village. Xhosa Easy homestays are only held at the Moshani family as this family has been hosting since 2016. The Moshani family is a medium sized family which is led by umama uNophelo Moshani. The hosts and hostess are her 2 daughters and grandchildren. The family is very friendly, warm, open-minded, kind and exudes the spirit of Ubuntu.

The length of the homestay ranges from short (1-5 nights), medium (6 to 30 days) to a lenghty homestay (1 month and more). The lenghty homestay is also known as a voluntour, whereby the homestayer engage in skills transfer in the village such as volunteering at a school.

The homestayers have their own separate room(s) in one of the homesteads houses where you have an option of sleeping alone or with the people you came with if travelling as a couple or a group. However, the bathroom is shared as well as the food and kitchen  (food included as part of the homestay). This is because the aim of this homestay is  about sharing space and cultural exchange between the family and the homestayers, not creating or reinforcing two separate worlds between the family and the homestayers.  

The family cook for you in order to introduce you to the Xhosa cuisine.  The staple food of the Xhosa people is maize; hence we have pap, amarhewu and umvubo, samp and beans as shown and explained in the main menu section below. This type of food is filling and lasts longer as sometimes there is a gap between meals. It is also cost-effective for big families.

The starchy cuisine is influenced by the fact that Xhosa people used to spend lots of time away from home working in the field planting or herding cattle and thus needed to be full for longer periods. However, despite cultural changes, starch remains Xhosa people's favorite food. A meal is not complete without rice/pap/samp or bread. 

It is important for you to be open to the food eaten, but you are more than welcome to bring your own food if you do not eat starch.

Drinking water mainly comes from rain tanks or village communal taps. You are welcome to bring your own bottled water. 

Lots of people can hear and understand English in the village, but some people do not, especially children and elders. So, from a cultural and integration perspective, it is important for you to hear or understand some Xhosa phrases in order to initiate conversations with children and locals. Before your arrival, we give you a booklet of Xhosa basics for you to look at. 

The Xhosa Easy Homestays is about giving you an experience of a village life, not trying to duplicate or mimic the city life. As a city person, this means being out of your comfort zone as facilities such as showers or bath tubs (we use washing basins) are not available. There are no restaurants or lots of facilities around.

However, there is a nearest public clinic (9 km) called Qitsi and the nearest public hospital is Cofimvaba hospital (54 km). The village is 9 km from the tar road.