Host Family Life

January, 2012

2012-01-31T09:25:00.000-08:00

We had two trips during January, despite that we don't like to get out in the cold, and that the road conditions are more icy and snowy once you leave the area of Kennewick. Once we visited Spokane again, and the second trip was to White Pass, a skiing area near Mount Rainier. We also spent a lot of time at home.

The photo is a bit blurry, but the boys were excited to be walking around a big city (compared to Kennewick, anyways)

Checking out Spokane Falls

It takes a lot of photos to get good action like this one. Medo is happy that in THIS one, HE gets to hit Prashant. One day, probably AFTER they return to their countries, they will finish growing up and become good men. I won't see most of that though (*sad*) -- but I do enjoy who they are while they are here -- maybe not good men just yet, but certainly awesome teenagers!

The boys have a thousand ideas of mischievous photos to take. No matter where we go.

Looking at these photos of Prashant and Medo sledding down our driveway looks kinda scary! They are flying through the air and landing on the snow in all sorts of positions. But they are having a wonderful time. And I survived many more bumps and spills while I was sledding as a child living in wintery Canada without breaking any bones. So far, they haven't either. (and now the snow is all melted!)

Still, we worry about Medo. He already broke his arm once....

I am pleased that both the boys, even Medo the fussy, seem to like "most" of my cooking. It is so much more pleasant to do anything when your efforts are appreciated. Of course, it helps to have some hot sauce available.

Our cross-country (Nordic) skiing trip. So beautiful, and so much safer than downhill skiing (also less expensive!). Not as exciting though. But we had a lovely time getting comfortable with skis and enjoying the snow. Our daughter Julie was with us too, but since her level of skill is so much greater than ours, AND she preferred snow-shoeing, we didn't see that much of her--she laughed at us though, and how often all of us fell into the snow--mostly the boys, of course.

Both boys became experts in getting up out of the snow after a fall. It's not easy when you have those long skies attached to your feet.

A beautiful photo. After 2-3 hours skiing, the boys manage to stay upright most of the time and we make good progress through the woods. Starting to get tired though.

On the 2.5 hour drive home, both boys crash. It was a busy and active day.

It is most fun to post about trips and special activities, but in fact, we do spend most of our time at home. Especially in the cold of winter. Here Medo is working on an engineering project for one of his classes (He's building a mouse-trap car), and Prashant is laughing at him. That's about normal, except that sometimes Medo is laughing at Prashant. Or they are insulting each other. Or they get mad at each other. Or watching something on the internet and laughing like crazy hyenas. They are usually up to something. Glad they also help when we need it.

Another home activity. Sometimes they goof around together, but Medo and Prashant are both seriously learning to play the piano. I've been trying to teach them. But it's an interesting process. Prashant, who is generally the more active of the two, will settle down and learn basics so that he can understand what he is doing, and additionally spends a little time learning advanced (too advanced) songs by memory. Medo, on the other hand, who is generally the more steady of the two of them, cannot settle down to learn beginning piano. He must play one of the hardest pieces, and without knowing how to read music or knowing music theory, it takes intense memorization and much repetition, and a lot of my time. But he's learning. They both are. (Especially when I kick them off the internet). I am impressed.

International relations...

2012-01-11T23:17:00.000-08:00

Because of students, I have learned a lot about international relations. I have seen through a small but personal window into the Arab Spring because of Hussein and Aley, the coup in Kyrgyzstan was scary because Azamat was receiving military training as is required for all males while it was taking place. I have seen Medo worried about sounds that reminded him of bomb blasts, and seen Anara's tears as she remembered her little cousin killed by terrorists. Tsunamis in Indonesia that we don't really hear of over here still come to my attention through posts of students on facebook--we live in a small world, and there are many sad things in it.

But that is not what I was thinking of at this time. I was thinking of things everybody has in common. I mean, true, everyone has to eat, and sleep, and grow up. But that's not what I was thinking of either. What I really wonder about today, is why do most teenagers refuse to wear warm clothes in the winter? Even if they come from tropical climates? And isn't it amazing that all of them want to sleep in on school days, and weekends as well? (this current pair can sleep through 3 alarms, gongs, cowbells, opera music, but ice water generally works...) Girls everywhere like to look nice in photos, and guys love it best when they look strange. And, perhaps not so surprisingly, guys have a lot more in common with guys from other countries than guys and girls do from the same country. (Same goes for girls). I have learned that male exchange students are more likely to cook than females (perhaps it's because of my cooking...) And who would have thought that guys sing more than girls? Even if they sound horrible, they still sing. It's a weird and funny world.

Merry Christmas!

2012-01-08T09:24:00.000-08:00

We had a lovely Christmas this year. We went to concerts, and parties with friends or church, and lots of other activities. Christmas Eve was the traditional (in our family) Christmas Eve party at the home of Dad's brother--yummy food and great company--some 30-40 family members were there! But Christmas morning, when we can finally open presents is still the highlight of the season. And perhaps most fun is to see how much the other people enjoy the gifts you gave them.

We had 13 stockings hung! That's a lot! It's easy to tell which ones are for our little grandsons! (We are so pleased they were able to come visit for Christmas!)

The Christmas tree had so many presents under it that it looks like Santa came more than once!

Our grandsons were not the only ones who enjoyed the foam swords! Benny is initiating our newest family member (our new daughter-in-law) into the family! Zixu was able to come too! Yay! He brought a delicious, not too sweet Chinese cake as his contribution to the festivities. Very good, and not too sweet like American cakes tend to be.

Grandma came to visit too! Yes, presents are fun. But family is the best gift of all! And every year our family gets bigger! Both domestically and internationally! We are so blessed!

We don't do a lot of expensive Christmas presents, but we have fun with them. Medo's eyes got so big when he saw this large box with his name on it! But, after unwrapping it, and unwrapping the smaller box, and the smaller box, and the bag, and the next small box, and another box, he finally found the little box of tabasco sauce! He has the nicest smile when he gets a joke played on him! (He also likes tabasco sauce -- it allows him to spice up our otherwise too bland food!) Prashant had the same experience, and found one sock and an orange in his giant box (the other sock was in another box with other gifts). We are happy they were able to share this day with us!

Our home was in a pleasant state of chaos! After a nice breakfast, opening the gifts, and enjoying visits, we had a calmer day, tidied the morning chaos up a bit, and watched movies and ate good food. Christmas, Thanksgiving, and New Year's are not good for diets!

With all the fun, we do not forget the reason for this holiday, and we heard the Christmas story many times, and remember always the goodness of God towards our family. Merry Christmas and Happy New Year! God bless us, every one!

2011-12-23T09:35:00.000-08:00

We've had a busy month. Medo has fit into our home quite comfortably and we enjoy his more calm influence.

Well..... sometimes more calm influence.

Medo is excited to learn to play the piano, and Prashant is excited to help him learn! Don't worry, eventually Medo did get to play by himself. Now he just needs to practice! Medo keeps saying what he really wants, is to learn the violin. Unfortunately, that is something I can't teach! Plus we don't have any violins in the house.

These two are always up to something. Perhaps, in this blog, I point out how mischievous they both are, and how often, but we truly do enjoy hosting them. There are occasional serious talks. We have fun with the finer points of having a Muslim and a Hindu living in a Christian home (no pork OR beef is served here! Also Prashant doesn't like fish. But we can't eat chicken ALL the time! So when we've had enough chicken, we eat fish or vegetarian food.) They help when asked, although Prashant complains loudly about it. And they are generally enthusiastic participants in whatever we are doing, although Medo takes some convincing when we want him to see a good American movie that is not as exciting within the first five minutes as Medo wants it to be. But, we want him to know some of the movies that define American life--Star Wars, It's a Wonderful Life, Fiddle on the Roof, Apollo 13, and, my personal favorite, Lord of the Rings (not strictly American...)

Prashant decided to learn the guitar and has gotten good enough that we enjoy listening to him (well, as long as he doesn't sing! Actually, singing, even Prashant's :) , is such a cheerful sound, it's nice to hear.

There was still some tinsel to put on the tree, so Medo helped decorate it after all. Nice job!!

Sometimes, this is necessary to calm Prashant down! Also, food just naturally tastes better when you are sitting on someone!

We've done several fun Christmas activities. My personal favorite was when we went to Walla Walla and heard the University Choir and Orchestra perform Handel's Messiah, mixed with more modern Christmas music. I appreciate that both boys enjoy classical music at times!

Leon is good friends with both Medo and Prashant, and drops by occasionally. Although I don't think computer and internet time is good if it's too much, it can be a social activity, and it's cheerful to watch them laughing together over whatever amusing video clips they dig up.

Gingerbread House making Party! We ended up with a lot of kids in the house, a little over half of them exchange students Prashant and Medo knew, and a few Americans. After pizza and a movie, the exchange students enjoyed making the gingerbread houses. The Americans arrived late and didn't join in this part.

It takes careful concentration!

When Prashant's house collapsed (didn't wait long enough for the icing that held it together to harden), Medo just added the pieces to the top of his own house, for a truly unique creation.

Finished houses! A special treat was a visit from Asana, our student from two years ago. We didn't do much for Christmas when she was here because our house was in chaos from remodeling, so we are glad she could participate in some fun this year! It's wonderful to see her!

Prashant making sure we don't waste the graham crackers and candy from his collapsed house.

Merry Christmas everyone!

Leavenworth December 2011

2011-12-23T00:28:00.000-08:00

Since snow isn't coming to our community, we decided to go where the snow was. Some of the PAX students went on a trip to Leavenworth, a German-themed tourist town a few hours away for a chance to do some sledding, and take too many fun photos. Prashant and Medo, of course, went along, and I was glad I got to go too.

Had to make friends with the hardworking horses that took us on a sleigh ride!

Prashant knows the truth! However, it doesn't apply to exchange students! (Store in Leavenworth)

The group of students that risked their lives sledding down the icy hills! (Actually, Medo has not forgotten how easy it is to break an arm, so he we VERY careful, but the others slid screaming down the hill and were laughing very hard when they got to the bottom.)

Look at that expression of endurance!

I'm standing on water! I'm standing on water! I was concerned the ice would break, he was concerned he would slip. Fortunately, both our concerns were unnecessary.

The whole group that went to Leavenworth

Medo and Prashant are at it again!

This one is all Prashant's doing. The others were just trying to get a nice group photo....

The lighting of the trees at Leavenworth. 5 pm. It gets dark so early in the winter, but it means we get to enjoy the lights longer.

Prashant and Medo

2011-12-07T12:29:00.001-08:00

Hiking at Palouse Falls

We've done more activities than usual this year, due to some unusual opportunities that came my way, plus I have more work so we have a little more money for gas. We took a few hours to visit Palouse Falls with Prashant and Medo. It has seemed sad that these two brothers could not live in the same home, so we invited Medo to join us on a regular basis.

Sitting on the railroad tracks at Palouse Falls


Please stay on the path. Do NOT break your other arm.

Chillin' in the sun

Palouse Falls are in the middle of the sage and grasslands that surround our community. You can see how much lava once overflowed this region when you see how tall the cliffs are. Pretty amazing.

Not everyone gets a house tour from Santa!

This past weekend we went to Yakima and saw the Gilbert House, a Victorian era home built some 110 years ago (yes, it's not old compared to the landmarks in some countries, but it's a respectable age for a house here) , decorated for Christmas, with fresh baked cookies, fresh home-made butter, actual candles on the Christmas tree, and a jolly and helpful Santa who enjoyed showing the boys around a little bit.

This may be the only photo either of them ever has with Santa Claus!

Sitting in the library at Gilbert House in Yakima


Santa, a good friend to have.

Welcome Medo!

We have enjoyed having Medo join us. When things in his host family changed that made it difficult for them to host him, we were most happy to offer Medo our home for the rest of the school year. We are looking forward to learning about Yemen and having another young man in our family!

Long live exchange students. May they always bless our lives!

Keeping busy

2011-12-05T19:23:00.001-08:00

A lot has been happening lately. As part of his requirements for his scholarship to spend a year in America, Prashant gives presentations about India to various groups -- church, school, family, others, both formally and informally. The largest group he's talked to so far is the Alternative High School, almost 50 people. This is one situation where Prashant's loud voice comes in handy, and everyone could hear him well as he told interesting stories about India and answered the many questions asked by the students. I'm glad I was able to be there too.

Thanksgiving is one of the favorite holidays, mostly because it's a family holiday. No gifts are expected, no advertisements every time you look around (except for food!), and lots of family warmth and fun--oh, and wonderful food--there's no dinner like Thanksgiving dinner! Our family is rather large, so large, in fact, that we borrow a few rooms at church for our dinner.

There were several classrooms (and a kitchen) we used for eating and playing games, and the gym was fun for basketball, wrestling (guys only!), and other physical activities (little kids need a place to run around!)

My husband is known in the family for being interested in Astronomy, and a day after Thanksgiving, his sister brought about 8 of her grandchildren to come and see Jupiter in his telescope. They enjoyed seeing the night sky, and were fascinated by Prashant -- a stranger to them, but a pretty cool dude. There was no appropriate way to greet him except to demonstrate their ability to make disgusting noises as a group (in order to disrupt his skype chat with a friend). Prashant was a good sport about these bizarre American children!

Our large family thanksgiving was wonderful, but also very large. So 2-3 days later, we had a smaller dinner with just our children--including Prashant of course, and Zixu came too! Our married daughter (and my beautiful grandsons) couldn't make it since they live so far away, and our sons came at different times, but in the end, everyone enjoyed the 8 hours of food preparation I did. Prashant helped too -- he did NOT like stuffing the turkey, but when it was completed, he couldn't help poking it and asking it "so, are you FULL now? Are you stuffed? Yeah, you're full.!"

The completed dinner was delicious and appreciated by all. Prashant did a nice job of decorating the cake we had for desert.

After Thanksgiving comes Christmas, but we wouldn't want people to think all we do is party. Prashant had plenty of time to keep in touch with his friends and family on facebook. This is SUCH a familiar sight!

He also helped rake the leaves that had fallen from the trees. I was very impressed with this because this was on the same day that his sister in India was getting married. He missed all the celebration, food, and excitement (and Indian celebrations are CELEBRATIONS!), and had to rake leaves instead. And he seemed happy and content. I am sure he wished he was there in India at this time, but he fully and cheerfully participated in whatever we were doing.

Thanksgiving is done. The leaves have fallen. The weather is getting cold -- it's time to get ready for Christmas! And so we pulled out our plastic tree, and the five boxes of decorations, put on some Christmas music, and made our home beautiful.

Prashant really got in the spirit of it and hung decorations on plants that we had never considered decorating before!

He wanted me to find a place to hang this french horn, and finally, I did!

The finished result!

It is also time to enjoy lots of other Christmas activities. The PAX Christmas party is one. I would call it the ANNUAL PAX Christmas party, since I've gone to one every year for the past 7 years. But I guess for the students it's once in a lifetime....

All the local PAX students (about 15) were asked to bring food from their home country (I cooked the Indian food while Prashant was at the Mall with friends!!!), and then we had a feast!!! There is good food in every culture. Host families were in attendance too, so we had a lot of people. But there was more than enough food.

Afterwards, we enjoyed a Christmas music and dancing performance by a local group of teenagers. They were wonderful, and we enjoyed fun Christmas music, and some spiritual hymns as well. A beautiful end to a beautiful evening!

Busy October and November

2011-11-25T21:46:00.001-08:00

Finch Park, Spokane

Some opportunities for travel came my way, a perfect opportunity to show Prashant around. First we explored Spokane a bit, and we were happy Medo could join us. They call each other brother, and seeing how much they laugh and joke, I believe it!

St. John's Cathedral, Spokane

Ice from pond at Manito Park, Spokane

(Yes, Medo is wearing a cast. and Yes, he broke his arm. And Yes, it was at our home -- but he's fine. Really. He's fine.)

Best Friends! Spokane

Spokane as seen from Cliff Drive


Yup, brothers!

Another opportunity came to explore the Washington Coast, and Prashant and I took advantage of it. We put over 1,000 miles on the car! And saw some gorgeous scenery. Prashant's enthusiasm for this awesome location makes it so much more pleasant to travel. It WAS a very rainy weekend, however, and cold and windy near the ocean, so we were amazed and grateful for the gift of a sunny hour while we were at Deception Pass -- sunshine and sparkling water highlighted the beauty surrounding us.

Deception Pass, Oak Harbor

"Beach" near Deception Pass, Oak Harbor

Deception Pass

We also got a few sunny minutes at Ocean Shores, although the wind was fierce and seemed to turn the spray from the waves into ice and flung it at us.

Waves at Ocean Shores

Zixu, is working for a short while in Seattle before he must return to China, but for the time being, his apartment is home base while we explore. The last day we checked out the Seattle area a little bit before heading back home. So many places to see! And wonderful to see Zixu as well (though catching him in a photo is a challenge!)

Twisted tree, Park near Redmond, WA

Printing press in MOHAI museum, Seattle area

Replica of Bank, MOHAI Museum

walking in Park near University of Washington

Finally we headed home again, and to Prashant's delight, it had snowed in the mountains, and in the last daylight left, we had a snowball fight with some very wet, slushy snow. Well, I was trying to take photos, Prashant was having the snowball fight -- but I had to defend myself, didn't I? He got me several times, but I had the last laugh -- it took a while for his hands to thaw -- next time, we must bring gloves!

SNOW on Snoqualmie Pass--fun but freezing cold!

Changes

2011-10-21T23:36:00.000-07:00

We've been very busy this year, and especially this summer. I knew something had to change and something had to be dropped. When there are many good things to do, how do you choose? In the end, it had to be exchange students. I would not be a coordinator. We would not host. I was very sad about this, because I love the students -- so much hope, idealism, energy, culture, and, yes, mischief. But it had to be done. We had visitors from other countries; Ali went home; Zixu moved out; my oldest two children moved in, one of them only for a month while he arranged a new apartment; my youngest daughter, her husband and the two most adorable grandchildren in the world moved out; there was a family reunion; financial classes; a wedding; career changes; new jobs....a chaotic crazy summer. Finally, about mid-September, the dust settled and we could look around. The only one left in the house besides my husband was my oldest daughter -- how wonderful to have her here for this coming year! And how exciting that we are going to support each other in becoming professional artists! But she has a very busy life and much of the time the house is empty except for my husband and myself, and there are two unoccupied bedrooms.... and, there was this poor student who still didn't have a permanent family -- a student who would have been my responsibility had I remained a coordinator. So everyone who knows us is not surprised that, yes, although we said we wouldn't, we are hosting a student after all.

Welcome, Prashant, of India!

My husband is happy to have someone to go canoeing an boating with -- someone who loves it. Future ship's Captain at your service!

And since Prashant made good friends with Medo while living with him in his first (welcoming) family, Medo comes along sometimes too (in this instance, we went to Seattle to visit Zixu, and see a bit of the town, as well as the beautiful scenery on the way there.)

More activities for 2010-2011 students

2011-09-17T10:00:00.000-07:00

The year was pretty busy! Towards the end of the year, it is harder and harder to get all the students together--they've made friends, they have school activities, they are trying to do the things they haven't done yet, knowing the year will be over far too soon, and so it gets difficult. I found myself doing many activities with just Rizki and Ali.

For example, they went with me to Leavenworth -- the Bavian tourist town in mid-Washington. An interesting town because if it's history -- it used to be a railroad town, but when the railroad moved it's lines to other places, Leavenworth faced ruin. No jobs. No reason for their location. So, they decided to make their town a tourist attraction by basing the downtown area on German/Bavarian shops and activities -- Christmas stores, German toys/clothes/home decorations, accordion orchestras, German dance events. Today, the town has become a major attraction and many many tourists visit. For Rizki and Ali, the additional attraction is it has more snow than Kennewick, and they had not yet seen enough snow!

I almost got all four together for our whale watching trip. But, Blagoja couldn't make it, so only Artem, Rizki, and Ali got to enjoy smelling the foul breath of gray whales, and see their backs as they surfaced. I had been pretty excited about it, so they had had high expectations of seeing whales, which were, sadly, dashed.

Whale backs do not look much different from logs!

So, after the boat returned us to land, I took them to the Woodland Zoo. Ah....that was more like it!

There were also a few activities with the other PAX students in the area -- an Entrepeneurial workshop focused on giving the students an idea of what they need to think about if they want to start their own business in their countries. I'm not sure how many were even interested, but it was good information!

Another PAX group activity was a visit to the local police station. I wonder if what the students saw was similar or very different from the police in their own countries! The most interesting activity was trying on handcuffs!

Then we ate! Everybody had fun making their own mixture of meats and vegetables and watching the cooks fry them. Watch out for the hot sauce though!

Afterwards, the whole group got a special visit with a local judge, who explained what he does and how the justice system works here.

I do wonder what the students learned from this day. I know what they heard, but what did they learn? It was an interesting day, and I am always impressed with how kind and helpful people are, and excited to meet students from all over the world.

Happyness!

2011-08-19T10:10:00.000-07:00

It has taken a long time, but I'm starting to have confidence that we will see students we know and love even after they return to their countries. Abdullah visited his host family this week and I got to see him again. Nice to see his hair is a reasonable length again :) So many fun memories!

Aika and her mother and sister visited Aika's host family this week also, and I got to see her again too, as well as meet her family. So wonderful to revisit some of those memories, and build new ones!

And, of course, Zixu never really left. He went home, we visited him and his family in China, he came back, graduated from the local 2 year college and 4 year university, we visited them again when his sister married last year, and we will probably see him reasonably often while he works in Seattle for approximately a year. After that, anything could happen -- but he better visit!!!

Kit has also visited in the last year, Azamat was here two years ago, Asana came last spring and we will probably see her again this year or next. Liz has become a flight attendant and may drop by sometime. I've seen Curry twice in the past year and a half. And Albert has visited every year while going to university in New York State and will visit tomorrow for his last week in America. It's great to know we will see our students again!!! And we know this because we have already seen some of them again. I am happy!

New family

2011-07-22T18:23:00.000-07:00

It is sad but true that not every host family placement works out. After a long time searching last September/October, I finally found a excited, friendly permanent family for Ali, and he left his welcoming/temporary family to live with this new family. But things didn't work out. Sometimes they just don't.
So Ali came to live with us in April. Ali, and Rizki were unusual students for me, because they spent a few nights every month in our home, just for fun. And we enjoyed it. Being a coordinator without hosting someone in our home is not so fun I decided. So it was awesome that we could host Ali for his last three months. Of course, the reason we hadn't planned to host this past year is because we are pretty busy. Everybody is busy! So some things on my To Do list didn't get done. (including this blog -- I'm writing this in July!) We enjoyed Ali. He has an unusual sense of humor. He made interesting new friends... ---->

He cooked Indian food for us regularly -- he's a great cook although he said he never cooked before (he followed cooking demonstrations on the internet). We learned different things about India than we did from Nikunj two years ago. He was teaching our two-year-old grandson soccer, and computer (although, our little grandson will learn that from anyone he can).
Once again, as every year when we've hosted a student, our family learned new things and became better citizens of the world. We were sad to see him leave at the end of June.

Canoe trip

2011-07-22T18:02:00.000-07:00

Those of you who know my husband, know that there is going to be a canoe trip during the year -- as many canoe trips as he can convince students to take. So finally the weather got nice enough that Ali and Rizki had their turn. Once you get away from the parks, there is lots of grass along the river banks.

If you find the right place, on the river bank or on one of the islands, wild irises can also be found growing on the shore.

This year was a very wet year in the Tri-Cities area, and the river was running so swiftly, that my husband and the boys decided not to try and get back across. (The Columbia is a very wide river where we are--probably 3/4 km across). So they called me to rescue them from the far side.

I came with a borrowed pick up truck that there hadn't been time to unload. Yes. We drove through town like this!! Ali and Rizki had a great adventure and decided, NO MORE CANOE RIDES!

Annual Seattle/Olympia trip

2011-04-09T00:59:00.000-07:00

Of course, any trip I take students on should further cultural, political, or leadership goals, so, sadly, a rock concert doesn't qualify. But that doesn't mean we can't have fun! We went to the State Capital in January. It was wonderful that the mountain passes were clear enough of snow that we traveled safely and fairly quickly over them.

Of course, everybody was sleeping in the car (it's a 3.5 hour trip). They were so lucky that I, the driver, was not!

But, by the time we got to Seattle, everybody was awake, and ready to enjoy the Boeing Museum of Flight. Everything from a life size model of part of the space station, to models of the very first Wright Flyer and fighter planes used in various wars. Even with only three students (Artem got sick at the last minute and couldn't come), there was a wide variety of interest and enthusiasm -- I'm glad we somehow managed to get together for lunch. Another student, Hadeel from Palestine joined us -- ah finally, a civilized and calm influence!

We also had the opportunity to go up the famous "Space Needle." It's kinda expensive, but it was included in the packet of tickets we purchased at a discount. It looked cool. But it wasn't cool -- it was freezing cold! Blagoja was fighting some sickness so the cold wind blowing around the top of the tower did nothing for him -- most of us preferred the warmer but less clear view from the enclosed areas at the top!

Nice bunch of people! (Mount Rainier in the distance, and part of Seattle and the exterior of the top of the Space Needle. But as a responsible coordinator, I really can't take the kids climbing around the outside of the Space Needle! Isn't digital photography and green screen wonderful?)

The next morning we checked out the Pacific Science Center beside the Space Needle. By this time, Blagoja was feeling better. But during the course of watching a 3D IMAX movie, I realized I was not feeling so good -- yes, my turn to be sick. Not sure what the guys were checking out -- there was a lovely dinosaur exhibit and a lot of other stuff, but Hadeel was gracious enough to stay with me (sometimes it's really nice to have a girl around!), and we mostly checked out the butterfly house (warm, tropical, and beautiful).

After the Science Center, we went down to the piers, and waited to board the boat for a tour of Seattle from the water. It was beautiful, and fun, but the cold breeze kept me huddled in a corner while the others explored the boat and the view. After the boat tour, we checked out the Aquarium. I took a nap on a bench, which felt soooo good, and the students enjoyed (I hope) the fish, octopi, water mammals, starfish, jellyfish, and other stuff at the aquarium. My state of health meant that we didn't take time to explore Pikes Market, but the guys were understanding. They did get a nice tour of Seattle when one-way streets and other traffic tangles prevented us from efficiently getting to the highway. It was getting late and we headed down to Tacoma where Hadeel's host mom lived and enjoyed a lovely dinner with her.

The next morning we headed to the Capital, explored this lovely majestic building. We saw a lot of other things going on as well.

Rizki and Ali had a great time marching with them, and participating in the activities that were designed to show our legislators the valuable contribution Muslims make in Washington State. Due to troubles in his home country, Blagoja did not feel comfortable participating and watched from a distance.

There were more activities planned, which I hoped Ali and Rizki would enjoy, so I left them with a friend from the mosque, and took my (still) sick self and Blagoja home early.

Catching up...

2011-01-23T13:28:00.000-08:00

I had thought that I would have a lot more time this year to do things because my family was not hosting a student and I was "only" going to be a coordinator. Wrong! There is always more to do than time to do it in. But we have had a number of student activities nevertheless, which I want to highlight with a few photos on this post:

October. The Rotary Club Duck Race. A fun way to raise funds.... interested people pay for a little plastic duck with a number on it. All the ducks get thrown in the water (all 35,000 of them!) and if the duck with your number gets into the finish gate first, you win a prize (a car, actually). They had 50 prizes (most of them a free dinner at a restaurant or something like that) donated by local businesses. All the students and I had a duck. We did not win anything.

The same day I took the students to the local Hindu Temple, where we enjoyed watching some of the Indian kids, who practice long hours to master traditional dance, perform for us. It is interesting that Ali and Rizki, both from Asia, understood and enjoyed the performance and food afterwards, a lot more than Blagoja, who's European background made this experience a lot more strange to him. The dancers were amazing.

Rizki's host family hosted a Hallowe'en part for all the students and their host siblings if they wanted to come. Both the pumpkins they carved and the costumes were fun.

In November we went down to Hermiston and Ranger Ben gave us a tour of the fish ladders, the turbines (they are HUGE), and the navigation locks.

Afterwards we had some sub sandwiches and took a photo with a giant John Wayne statue.

Every year the Kennewick School Board wants to meet all the exchange students. About 3/4 of the students in Kennewick made it and got to introduce themselves and meet the decision makers in our local school district.

At the beginning of December we had a PAX Christmas party. We were happy to have our Regional Director, Stephanie join us. Sadly, only two of my students were able to attend, and only approximately half of the other PAX students in our area. But the food was great, and we all enjoyed listening to the wonderful elementary school Steele Band, and dance to their lively songs!

Stephanie also wanted to meet Pahmie, another YES student living near Spokane with one of my previous host families who moved there. So we took a trip up there and met with him before moving on to Spokane. There is a lot more snow in Spokane than in the Tri-Cities! Afterwards we enjoyed an IMAX movie in Riverfront Park, and a nice tropical greenhouse -- so nice to see warm green growing things in the middle of winter.

We also visited St. John's Episcopal Cathedral, so the boys could enjoy the inspiring architecture and beautiful stained glass windows. It is possible I enjoyed it more than they did, but I think the boys had a good time too.

Just before Christmas, we went again to the Seventh Day Adventist Food Distribution Center and helped the volunteers there help families in need. The volunteers were glad to see the students again. Meerim from Kyrgyzstan joined us this day.

After we finished volunteering, we came to my home and made gingerbread houses. It was supposed to be a

Lovely houses!

Balloon Rally and Heritage Days

2010-10-16T21:33:00.000-07:00

It's not easy getting everyone together for activities when host families have their own activities they have planned, so only Rizki and Ali made it to the Prosser Balloon Rally. We had to leave at 5:15 in the morning. It was easy this year because Rizki and Ali spent the night at my house. But it was cold, colder than I expected, and I'm sure both the boys (from tropical climates) felt it more than I did.

Still, it was beautiful!

Seeing those colorful balloons lift away from the ground, hearing the hot jets of flame that made them rise,

and watching the light of the sun make everything bright was amazing.

Afterwards, we went back home, and I took a nap! Good thing, because in the afternoon we went to "Heritage Days", as I have done other years, and Ali and Rizki were able to see what life in America was like 200 years ago.

Learning to make fire without matches. (the preparation is a lot of work, but once you have everything you need, it's very very quick to start a fire!)

An admiral or some other office of the British Navy.

This young man did a wonderful job dancing for us after his grandfather explained some of the meaning and importance of native American dances.

It was a fun day!

Keeping busy at the beginning of the year....

2010-09-18T17:01:00.000-07:00

Since my students all arrived at different times, not all were able to participate in all activities. Only Ali and Rizki were here for the Benton County Fair. The Demolition Derby was the first "official" activity I did with them, although Rizki arrived with his host brother. I don't know about them, but part of me thinks it would be so fun to race other cars and not care whether they hit each other!

After that, Blagoja arrived, and we volunteered to help the Seventh Day Adventist Church at their food bank and second hand store. We helped them distribute food for families that needed help, and earn a bit of money to buy more food for them.

We waited for Artem to arrive before going to Silverwood and Spokane, but on the last Friday before school started, we went without him. We had fun on the roller coasters and water slides, but it was too cold, especially for Ali and Rizki, after they got wet and the clouds were in front of the sun.

We spent the night at Rashed's host family (Rashed went home about two years ago and then his family moved near Spokane), and explored Spokane a bit in the morning before heading back home where Blagoja and Rizki had appointments with their high school counselors to set up their classes, and I went to greet Artem at the airport -- everybody is here now that is supposed to be!

My husband and I took an afternoon trip to Palouse Falls, and hiked around in the river canyon among the ancient lava formations. Blagoja went to Portland with his host family, but Ali and Rizki had a nice time checking out the waterfalls, and climbing on the rocky trails. Pretty cool!

So finally, we had the arrival orientation at my home. It took a a while before the whole group arrived, and then there were holidays and some other problems, but we had a successful orientation at last. It was especially nice to see the presentation each of the students gave about their country, and eat food from different places -- we had Ukranian meat balls, Mexican enchilada casserole, German potato salad, Indian Chana Masala, and Kazakh tomato salad. Which brings us up to date!

Happy New Year!

2010-09-01T08:21:00.000-07:00

Last year was a hard year for me. For many reasons which have nothing to do with exchange students. It was so hard that I decided I need to take a rest for a year and have no students in my home, and not even be a coordinator (this made me sad, since I truly enjoy and love my students). But, I decided too late, and my organization kept asking me to PLEASE find homes for the three students they had assigned me. I did try. Nothing worked. I couldn't find anyone that wanted to host them. So I was even more discouraged. It was getting late in the year, and my organization was hoping another of their coordinators would place my students, but that didn't happen either.

So finally, knowing they were great kids, I made a GIANT effort, and started knocking on doors in good neighborhoods. That was very hard to do! But rewarding. Within 10 days I had FOUR homes. Not only was I able to take care of the students assigned to me, but also one extra. So I have four students this year. I am pleased and looking forward to an interesting year.

Welcome Rizki, Ali, Blagoja, and Artem! (Indonesia, India, Macedonia, and Ukraine)

Catching up on Asana

2010-08-13T07:06:00.000-07:00

Although this blog is about our experiences with exchange students, I do have another life, and that other life has been difficult this past year, so I haven't blogged very much. I want to take this opportunity to show some of the activities we did with Asana and the other students, and catch up on what Asana has been doing since she returned to her country.

First, some of the activities:

Plamena invited everyone to a skating party. Personally, I love skating parties! Mostly because it's fun watching students try it for the first time. Plamena was pretty good, Farhad had been having lessons, and Aika and Aley caught on fairly quickly, but poor Asana. That slippery ice gave her no end of trouble -- even in the photo you can see her holding on to the railing for dear life. I suppose this activity could be called a "cultural" experience, but mostly it was just fun. We did do a few "fun" activities throughout the year.

The Mosque sponsored a trip to Olympia for "Muslim Day", in which Muslims from all over the state came to Olympia and advocated for issues important to Muslims, as well as presented all the positive things that Muslims have done in this state. Asana, Aley, and Farhad joined them and learned about our Capital, and had workshops and other sessions to learn how to deal with the State government. Asana and the others had an opportunity to meet with Senator Jerome Delvin.
I am particularly glad that Aley and Asana had this opportunity because they had not been able to go to the West side of the state with their host families (We never did take Asana there, I feel kinda bad about that -- although when we finally could, she was so involved in the Juneteenth Pageant that we could not coordinate our schedules well enough)

I invited the students over to a "game night", and Monopoly ended up being the game of choice. Aika could not make it. Asana, Plamena, Aley, and Farhad all have very strong and very different personalities, so it was a very lively game. It was also the good-bye party for Farhad and Aley, both of whom returned to their countries early. That was sad for all of us.

Mayor John Fox and Mayor pro tem Ed Revell of Richland graciously invited the students to sit in on a City Council meeting, and afterwards explained how local government works. I am continually amazed at how interested people are to meet exchange students.

Then there was the Black Eyed Peas Concert at the Tacoma Dome. As a responsible coordinator, I tried to fit some American Culture into the trip -- the Concert not being considered sufficiently cultural by my organization, but the visit to the Japanese Garden and the glass artwork outside the Glass Museum just weren't that interesting to the students, although they politely took a look at everything. But the Concert was amazing -- although they assured me I wouldn't have enjoyed it, which is just as well, I had a nice visit with my sister instead.

Kubota Gardens in South Seattle --->

Glass sculptures on bridge over highway to the Glass Museum. --->

Which brings us to graduation... An exciting time even when students only receive a "Certificate of Attendance" rather than a diploma. Most of the schools in my area don't allow students to graduate because it is so difficult to decide if the classes they took in their home countries match the graduation requirements. Plamena worked very hard though, and successfully graduated.

Asana had already graduated in her home country. I think she enjoyed this graduation as her own even though, technically, her high school here didn't allow her to graduate.

EVERYONE is happy at graduation time!

Asana flew to Washington DC for a departure orientation there, and home to Ghana on the 3rd of July. Since then she has been working on getting her visa so she can return to America (she succeeded in finding a way -- we are so impressed with her determination and persistence), and enjoying her family. She has helped the incoming exchange students at orientations in her country, and volunteered at the hospital in her home village. She will be back on August 19th, but not to Washington State, her college and new home will be in Missouri!

Car Culture

2010-07-16T21:54:00.000-07:00

One would think that with so many cars in America, people have a lot of freedom to do whatever, where-ever they want. And it is true. I can go where I want, when I want. I don't have to wait for any bus, try to figure out connecting routes, walk so far to the subway, or carry my bags wherever I go until I get home.

It sounds like a cool deal, and I think many students are surprised that they may have LESS freedom to travel when they get here. That's because, #1, students aren't allowed to drive, #2, cars are expensive, and #3, America is organized for cars, not walking.

#2 first. Cars are expensive. A nice car means you are making car payments -- $200 to $500 per month. We don't actually have a super nice or new car, so our "used" car is paid for, but many families have car payments to make. Then there's car insurance. People who have old, not super nice cars and two people who drive, only pay maybe $100 per month. Others pay more . And drivers who are male, and under 25 years old, pay even more (because, statistically, they have more accidents). (Adding an exchange student to an insurance policy can add another $100 per month). Then there's gas. That can easily cost $200 or more per month, just driving around town -- long trips cost extra. A problem I don't have, because I live in a not large town, is that I don't have to pay for parking spaces. But in big towns and cities, this can be expensive -- $6 per day? That's assuming you can FIND a parking space -- not always easy. And what if there's an accident. Sure, insurance will pay, but usually there are conditions, like the accident should not be YOUR fault! Car repairs are another expense. To keep a car in good shape, you have to maintain it--that's one expense-- and when things actually break, that's even more expense. New cars, not so much, old cars, a little more. Our last car had a repair bill for $1,400. We chose to buy a different car -- very lucky to get a good used car for only $2,000. Anyways, with all that money, host parents are careful about who gets to drive the car! Even our own children have a hard time until we know they are good drivers.

So all of the above explains the reason for #1 (students aren't allowed to drive), plus, of course, driving is actually a DANGEROUS activity, and we want to send students back to their families in good health!

That leaves #3. America is organized for cars, not walking or biking. What this means is that our communities are divided into residential areas, retail areas, and business areas. Residential areas do not have stores or restaurants in them. Only houses or other types of buildings to live in. Even apartment areas have only apartments, not stores. Retail areas have lots of stores and restaurants, but they may not be very close to where you live. Business areas have offices, and warehouses, and may have restaurants among them and mix with retail areas. And, worst of all, since nearly everyone has cars, bus service may not be very good (better in large cities, not so great in my community), and especially, buses may not go anywhere near the richer neighborhoods, which is where we are more likely to find host families.

So, what to do?

Be prepared to be good friends with whoever is in your family, and neighbors.
Participate in after school activities (this is a good idea for many reasons -- you get to make friends, you get opportunities to do more things and even travel with the group, you don't spend as much time at home...)
Set up times with your host families when they will drive you places (Host families EXPECT this -- they know you will often need rides -- just like American kids do).
Get to know the bus system in your area -- it can be helpful.
Use a bike (the buses have places to store bikes if you need to go to a farther place.)
Have things to do at home. Besides homework and LIMITED internet time, have a hobby -- painting? reading? learning a musical instrument? keep a journal (this is a better idea than it sounds like!), watch American movies and shows (why leave your country if you are going to watch shows and news from there all the time?), chores, interact with family members. There's lots of things to do.
Invite friends over (this is a normal thing to do -- just make sure there's no conflict with your host family).

This post isn't so interesting as (I hope) some of my others are, but I've seen cars, freedom, and internet cause a lot of problems. Cars and internet are wonderful, but don't let incorrect expectations take away from your experiences in America. You will have an amazing year even if you stay at home more than you are used to!

Asana is home

2010-07-09T20:52:00.001-07:00

Not MY home, but her home in Ghana. The cycle shouldn't be so familiar to me, but it is. Someone is missing. I miss all the other students more strongly too. I no longer know what is happening in their lives (especially if they don't have very good access to the internet or they are not good at communicating, and all of them are very busy). I have to get used to it. I work to remember the gratitude I feel for having had the opportunity to know her, and them.

So...now that I have nothing to do anymore, I will have time to catch up on my posting.

Just kidding! I still have LOTS to do.

Three weeks ago, my daughter graduated from our local college. So I won't be babysitting so much anymore. Two weeks ago she gave birth to her second son. So I will be babysitting more. Well...who can predict the future anyways. But for now, two grandkids is keeping me VERY busy!

Although Aley and Farhad ended up returning to their countries early, we DID have a final good-bye orientation with the three girls. We talked about packing, about adjusting to being back in their countries, about keeping in touch with other students, about staying involved in YES activities that would be available to them when they returned home. All three will be attending university. Aika left a little early (May 20) so she would be able to participate in Kazakh national tests (in which, by the way, she did excellently well). Plamena left June 9, and will enjoy her summer before transferring to England and starting University there. Asana was the last one. Fortunately, she had a lot to do. It was nice we got to see her a little longer!

Asana got to meet my new little grandson just before she left. Unfortunately, he cost her a trip to Seattle, because I did not want to leave my daughter so soon after the baby's birth. Asana was very gracious about that, and in any case, anticipates that her time in America is not over and she will have other opportunities. Besides, packing, was a lot of work and took a lot of time. Choosing what to take and what to leave behind is never easy, but the airlines limit what can be taken so choices must be made. I think it was harder for Asana than most students I have known -- there is so much she wanted to take and share with her family--so much stuff that they needed -- not just souveniers! In the end, a friend from the Juneteenth Pageant promised to mail her a box, and the ladies from the PEO organization (the major contributers to her University funds) took several boxes and promised to get them to Missouri so Asana wouldn't need to take those things to Ghana and then back to America. And I get to mail a box to an uncle living in America that will be visiting Ghana at the beginning of August. In any case, packing was a HUGE undertaking, but it was completed in time. (Cleaning her room after she left resulted in two more boxes that will be sent to Missouri!)

Asana caught her plane to Washington DC at 6 am on June 29th. She phoned a few times to let me know she had arrived at various airports safely, and then a few times from DC. She spent 3 days there, getting reacquainted with her friends from Ghana and attending the departure orientation. And then she flew to Accra--capital city of Ghana. I knew she must have arrived, because on facebook I saw that others of her peers made it safely. She e-mailed and phoned once. She has a lot of work to do to get her visa. But two days ago she finally left Accra and joined her family. I can just imagine how happy they all are, and what celebrations they must be having. But internet communication is mostly over (maybe sometimes she can go to internet cafes). Phone calls are expensive. She is gone.

At least for the time being. I suspect we will hear from her more once she returns to Missouri.

But in the meantime, it is summer. Maybe, just maybe, I will have time enough to write about all the things I missed during the year!

Asana is Amazing

2010-06-21T07:25:00.000-07:00

While it has been a difficult year for me, Asana hasn't let my problems stop her. She has been focused on finding a way to return to America for University--apparently a degree from an American University will be much more useful in achieving her goals of founding an orphanage, and becoming a doctor than a degree from a university in Ghana. Although I want to be supportive, I've never believed in giving false hope, and I saw so many obstacles in her way, that I'm afraid I wasn't as encouraging as I could have been. Fortunately, Asana is a strong and resourceful person, and knows how to pray, and how to make friends. She never gave up. I got tired just watching her work at it. Asana impressed many people, among them her history teacher, who wanted very much to help Asana acheive her dreams, and knew that to do this you need money, and Asana had none. This teacher contacted the local newspaper and TV stations, and Asana's story became known. As her story spread -- to a Seattle
paper, to African papers, and
even London, England -- support and donations and scholarships became available to her and she will be coming back and attending University in Missouri on her way to becoming a doctor!!!

Asana cannot even express her thankfulness, and gives all the credit to God for this wonderful blessing she has been given, and lots of gratitude to the people through whom God has worked to accomplish this.

I learned a lot too. Especially that God really does help us find a way after we have worked as hard as we know how. I keep wishing that us older people didn't have to learn from the younger ones -- that we already know more than they do, but that's not a smart wish! All of us can learn from all of us.

In addition to this, she has also maintained a 4.0 Grade point average -- that's the best you can get. AND, she has competed in a scholarship pageant. She had to learn how to look her best, prepare a talent, and perform in front of many people with poise and dignity. It's not something I could do, so again she found people that helped her accomplish this. She didn't win. BUT, she was the second runner up, and she was beautiful. She also received an award for highest grades in school, and for her friendly personality. (At her school she received an award as best nursing student of the year, and is now qualified to be a nurse's assistant). She acheived all this in a country she's only been in for ten months, with a language that's not her best language.

Congratulations Asana!!! So many people have been delighted to know you and happy to help you, and I can't help thinking that it must also have been a pleasure for God to make your dreams come true!

Christmas--a little late, but still a lovely time of year...

2010-02-26T09:15:00.000-08:00

Poor Asana. She really didn't get a proper Christmas celebration this year. And even worse, her birthday was the day before Christmas, and didn't get properly celebrated either. The problem is our house. It took us 7 months to remodel it, and finally finished the hardest parts on December 25. It should have only taken 2-3 months, but we had to wait for these supplies, and that contracter, and this appliance, and that.... well, it just took a long time.

We were delighted that Albert was again able to visit. He handled the chaos in our home with his usual calm and practicality. We finally decorated the Christmas tree three days before Christmas. Although the tree looked beautiful, the surroundings were not!

After two weeks of total chaos and mess, the kitchen was finally finished, the week before Christmas, and looks really good! It's nice to be able to cook again! And it's so much easier to keep clean when everything is in good shape and looks good when it's cleaned! And we can let our grandson loose again!

But we still had to finish the TV room. We spent several days before Christmas moving furnture and boxes, removing the ceiling and carpet, and repainting the walls and ceiling. Everybody helped some--our children came and did a bunch, Albert helped a LOT every day, and, of course Asana did too. Then on Asana's birthday we replaced the flooring. It took all day, and we were exhausted at the end of it. It was also the day of the family (all my husband's relatives) Christmas eve party. Tired or not, we had to go. Afterwards, we had just enough energy left for a small birthday celebration for Asana, but it was a very small celebration indeed, and disappointing for someone who had looked forward to her first ever party. (wow, not even a photo!)

Which brings us to Christmas day. We spent most of the morning moving boxes and furniture and unpacking and cleaning, so that there would be room to open the presents around the tree. Our oldest son had to work (he works for Amazon.com as a troubleshooter, and was needed to answer the phones from all the people who needed help making their Christmas presents work) so we didn't actually open any presents until 6 in the evening. But at least we were all there--all my kids (American and current students), my husband, and my grandson. There are still a lot of details to finish with the house remodelling, but the worst of it was over, and we were finally able to relax!!!

It wasn't the Christmas (or birthday) I had hoped to give Asana, but there were a few activities we did. There was the large exchange student Christmas party, that Asana attended. Good food (except that most students are not Muslim, so she, and some of my other students had to be careful not to eat the pork), and it was fun to be able to learn about and play a song on the bells--although the students were not as good as the real performers! (Better than I expected though!)

And there was a Christmas party at Farhad's house for our smaller group of five students.

And a basketball game (Thanks, Zixu, for the tickets!)

But for me, the best parts of Christmas are the music, and Asana was not able to attend the Christmas Concert by our local Orchestra, or the performance of "The Messiah" (my favorite Christmas music of all), and she didn't make it to my daughter's community's "Lighted Farm Implements" Parade.

Yes, it wasn't the Christmas we hoped for, but at least Asana finally gets to live in our house looking the way it should!

In praise of small towns

2010-02-04T08:05:00.000-08:00

It is a sad fact, but true, that I do not live in an exciting, vibrant, always busy city. It takes two hours to drive to the nearest large city, and a lot longer to drive to a BIG city. And what is worse, my not-large city is surrounded by rather small farming communities. And several of my students live in them and are disappointed. Very disappointed, in fact. I am not sure why.

Who wants to breathe bus fumes and auto exhaust all the time? Who wants to be always surrounded by crowds of strangers? Who wants to walk through litter and see ugly advertising on all sides? Who wants to be at greater risk for crime? Who wants to never hear a bird sing, but have the roar of traffic always in their ears? Who wants to be in a place where trouble can find them so easily?

OK, so the big cities have museums (boring boring), and concerts, and buses that come every ten minutes instead of every half hour, and tall tall office buildings, and lots of cafes and restaurants. I agree, they are a nice place to visit. Exciting even.

But for living, give me the warmth of a small town. Where your neighbors know you. Where life is slower and more relaxed. Where you can see the sun rise and hear the early morning concert given by the local birds. Where the store clerks know you, and people are more likely to help you. Where you have to be who you are and can't hide behind flashy advertizing or anonymous crowds. Where even a small person like me can make a difference.

Where else would they celebrate the basic things of life, and recognize the value of hard work?

(Lighted Farm Impliments Parade in the small community where my daughter lives)

Are my small towns are like my image of Egypt and Saudi Arabia? ----->

"Oh look!" I used to exclaim to Hussein and Rashed, "It's a photo of your country!" And they would correct me and tell me the "truth" about how modern and big their cities were. "Sure," I would tease them; "OF COURSE I know what Egypt and Saudi Arabia look like -- I've seen the movies--all they ever show is sandy desert!"

Well, okay, the movies I watch aren't that accurate. But neither are my small American towns as desolate and isolated as a Bedouin village. In this age of computers, small towns are where professional people live so they can enjoy nature and peace and quiet and still be able to work. It is where people dream of living when they retire--away from the rat race. The owners of large farming operations live in them. And of course, there are "smaller" people, people who run the few stores and gas stations, lead the churches, or are employees of the farmers. Many small towns are near larger towns that can be easily reached by car--EVERYBODY (well...an extremely high percentage) in America has a car--especially people in small towns.

Cities are for visiting. But if you really want to live a genuine life, a small town wins, every time!

Better late than never--Thanksgiving

2010-01-19T08:27:00.000-08:00

It's been pretty busy lately, and our internet is not always cooperative, so my blogging is behind.

One of the holidays I missed was Thanksgiving, which always occurs on the last Thursday and Friday of November. One of the nicest things about Thanksgiving is that it is a holiday that hasn't been commercialized very much. It's true that we can buy Thanksgiving cards, Thanksgiving decorations, and, of course, lots of Thanksgiving food, but mostly the holiday is about being grateful for all the good things in our lives, and getting together with family.

There is a lot to be grateful for:

Good food. We had two Thanksgiving dinners. The first was with my husband's larger family (only about one third of them could come) which we had at church so there would be room for everyone (Grandma's home is a little too small). The second was at our oldest daughter's home and included only our little family. Julie is a most gracious hostess and a wonderful cook. Both dinners were delicious. Asana didn't join us this year as she was with others, and I suspect that Nikunj last year wasn't as grateful as we were, since the centerpiece of the meal was meat, but there was lots of other good food (by our standards!).

Family. The best part of any gathering! I'm so glad that I have a lot of family. AND that some members of my family come from all over the world (my students). AND that I my family is growing--everybody should have grandchildren!

Fun. Fireworks. Movies. Board games. Snowball fights. Singing in the car. Working together. Learning. There are lots and lots of ways to have fun. (Photo shows Albert and Nath arm-wrestling at a family member's home during Thanksgiving 4 years ago)

Our home. A bit too small, a bit too old, a bit too dark; but it keeps us warm, gives us a place to sleep, eat, work, read, garden, hang out, and play. It is where we belong.

Faith. I've heard our faith defined as something that "makes bad men good, and good men better," and I certainly agree. I've also found this is true of the faiths of my students and I'm grateful for what I've learned from them as well. (Photo of the church building we worship at every Sunday).

And there is much more--The beauties of nature. The opportunity to learn--in school, from life, from good books, from friends. Our health. Our friends.

For what has been--THANKS! For what will be--YES!!!

Suffering

2009-11-16T08:26:00.000-08:00

Last year, Hussein teased me about starting a new suffering experience by hosting another exchange student (one would think we had learned our lesson with Hussein, but apparently we are slow learners!) This year, I received another perspective on suffering:

As we have gotten to know Asana better, of course we learned more about Ghana too, and specifically Asana's life. As usual, the more we learn about a country, the more we realize how ignorant we are of it. Remembering all the other kids from Ghana that I met in Washington DC, and expecting to hear about different tribes and ethnic groups in Ghana, I asked about one young man in DC who looked like he was 30 years old. Before I could finish my question, Asana said, "that's suffering". A dreadful sinking feeling filled my heart as I thought about what a person would have to go through to make them look that much older. After several years of hearing about war and violence between some countries, Asana was talking about the suffering caused by poverty. During the course of our conversation, Asana elaborated further that to this particular young man, Asana's family might possibly appear rich.

Let me tell you what I have learned about Asana's family. They are cheerful and honorable. They have a warm family. They are devout Muslims and every time I see Asana pray (and she prays the required five times daily) I see a sweet and humble person who's devotion inspires me and blesses our home. They are grateful people who appreciate any good thing that happens. And they are bold people--they know that things will not magically happen for them--they must ask, and they must work. That said, they live in a home without a kitchen or bathroom, where 8 people live in three rooms, where the floors are dirt, and the shower is a watering can in a grass mat enclosure outside. If they get sick, there may not be money to pay for a doctor, nor is a good doctor easily available--you have to go to a town 70 km away over a badly maintained road. There doesn't seem to be a great variety of food available, and even less during the dry season. Asana's ONE suitcase was the smallest I have ever seen a student arrive with. Knowing of Asana's life, and the struggles she has faced, makes me embarrassed about the small complaints I have. And to think that there are people with even less than Asana has. Of course, I have long known about different cultures, but this time it entered into my heart, not just my head, that the differences between rich and poor are also great cultural differences. These great differences, however, do not stop people from becoming better. Both Asana and the young man whom I asked about competed for the scholarship to come here, and both of them won, against great odds--poverty doesn't take away from the quality of any human being.

Cultural education

2009-10-10T10:07:00.000-07:00

Finally, it happened, we have a student that doesn't know more about America than we do! Oh my goodness! Asana is one of the sweetest people we've ever met, but she didn't know what pizza was. or a hamburger. Or Disney. Or *gasp* McDonalds! Every new gadget we use in the kitchen amazes her. I guess a breadmaking machine might be considered remarkable in lots of countries, I remember the slightly widened eyes and carefully neutral face of Albert when he saw ours. I finally said, "America, huh?" and he just wordlessly nodded. So, okay, I guess some of our kitchen stuff is over the top. But blenders? Mixers? Toasters? C-mon, EVERYbody has those!

I finally had to ask Asana about what her kitchen was like in Ghana. What kitchen?? Her family cooks outside over an open fire. Before anyone asks, there's no bathroom either. Her shower is a watering can that she waters herself with inside a straw mat enclosure. One would think she would be a miserable, angry person, but she is not. She is cheerful, adaptable, and thinks annoyances are funny. I guess, for her there are a lot bigger problems to worry about, why get upset about the little stuff--and she makes me realize how much little stuff there really is.

We are working on filling the gaps--she has eaten pizza and hamburger now. She's seen a Disney movie, and knows what McDonald's is. We've taken her shopping in a megastore--WalMart.

We've gone bowling.

We may not be able to watch Star Wars with her, since she really doesn't like violence in any form, but there's plenty of other American culture to acquaint her with.

AND, while Azamat was still here, she heard Zixu play the bagpipes. However, getting a personal bagpipe performance from a Chinese International student is probably not a typical American experience!

Asana has certainly been getting an education. She has been wonderful and appreciative, and delightful. But I wonder--who is educating whom?

A new year

2009-10-03T21:18:00.000-07:00

Last year I participated in 3 or 4 different New Years--Hindu, Chinese, American, and Muslim, but for me, the new years starts in mid-August, when the new students arrive. Since my students for this year come from several slightly different programs, they arrived on different dates. Egypt and Ghana arrived on August 12, Afghanistan arrived on August 14, and Bulgaria and Kazakhstan arrived on the 19th. The only one for whom I was able to be at the airport was Afghanistan, having been traveling on the 12th myself, and on the 19th at a different airport saying good-bye to Azamat as he left for Kyrgyzstan. By the 21st, I had made sure to meet my last two students, and the year started. (Does the photo look like there is mischief ALREADY starting? This early in the year???) Once again I was amazed at the courage of all these kids, excited and nervous for an experience they couldn't really be prepared for despite how hard they and everyone else worked to get ready.

The first thing I had to do when I arrived back home was pick up Asana. Since she and Aley had arrived 2 hours earlier than expected, my family hadn't been at the airport to greet her--the organization was unable to reach my family by phone, and I was still in the air on a different flight. Aley's family took her to their home, where they showed her a bed, and she was still sleeping 7 hours later when I finally got to her. She still wasn't really awake, but managed to walk to the car, and to her room in my home, where she once again went to sleep. It took weeks for Asana to get her sleeping pattern to match our time zone! (Actually, I think she's still working on it....)

And so the familiar routine starts again--getting to know strangers and becoming friends. Since school didn't start for another two weeks, I planned a few activities so they would have something to do besides sit at home. Pretty much all of them reported being bored--no school, no travelling, no friends, and still feeling too new in their families.

So we went canoeing one day. I figured Aley and Farhad didn't want too much advice, so I just let them go. I love how they are paddling in opposite directions! Finally, they jumped out of the canoe and brought it back to shore!

And we volunteered (like last year) at the Bishop's storehouse preparing food for distribution to local needy families.

We went to the County Fair, which I guess was a cultural experience, but not THAT interesting. Most of us met together, including Aika's host sister, and walked around, and tried one of the rides (they are VERY expensive!). Farhad went with his host family on a different day.

We also spent a day at Mount Rainier. This is a volcano, but no one would know while climbing it's sides; a beautiful natural garden covered with grasses, flowers, and trees. The day was cloudy, so the kids didn't get to actually see the volcano, but the surroundings were gorgeous.

Before we started, we stopped in to see Aika, who could not come because she was sick, and had a small birthday celebration for Plamena--Aika didn't miss the WHOLE day.

And, of course, no trip to the mountains is complete without a canoeing opportunity. Unfortunately, the first opportunity was very short- but the highlight of the day, as Aley, Plamena, and my husband tipped the canoe within a minute of launching.

lol lol lol

Plamena spent the rest of the day wearing either a towel or a blanket. What a birthday!! She was a good sport though, and we had a great time--except Farhad, who had seen plenty of mountains and trees in his country. We went canoeing again, without incident in this beautiful place (photo to the left), before climbing on the mountain itself. The cloudiness and the cold caused us to make it a short hike, but as in all the other years, I was grateful that we have beautiful places like this in our country, and that we can visit them.

Welcome to America!

2009-09-03T07:47:00.000-07:00

In early July I was e-mailed the possibility of an opportunity to volunteer at the Washington DC arrival orientation for the YES students. To my great surprise, the possibility became reality, and on August 8 I flew to Washington DC. Something exciting to take my mind off missing Nikunj and the others, and a chance to meet my students for the coming year a little earlier than their arrival in our town, as well as looking forward to seeing the energy and excitement of a new group of wonderful kids. I was also looking forward to meeting friends from previous orientations. I was not disappointed.

A total of 360+ students were expected, so the organization and time and thought spent on this arrival orientation by AFS-USA was amazing. At the same time, the first group of outgoing students (from America to other countries) was also present; their departure orientation put together by PAX, and they occasionally joined us and had the opportunity to mingle with students from the countries they were going to. As well, staff from other countries, and YES alumni were on hand to help out and work with the students during workshops.

Of course, only two of my five students were at this orientation--the others were in different (but similar) programs. After arrival and a good night's sleep, I hung around the hotel lobby ( a VERY nice hotel lobby) waiting for the first students to arrive. There was information, bags, water bottles, and name tags to give them, and while we organized that, we kept looking up--when would the first bus arrive? By 9 am, our waiting was rewarded, and a bus full of exhausted but excited Saudi's arrived from the airport. After a 20 minute scramble of getting luggage put in a waiting area, and matching students with their bag of information and other things, we hit a snag--the hotel rooms weren't ready. This may sound like poor planning, but it wasn't really. We never know how long it will take for students to get through customs, and the hotel needs to give their guests from the previous night time to depart. So as the other busses began to arrive, there were always students hanging around, talking, greeting newcomers, or just sitting in chairs hoping they could SLEEP soon! This was hardest for the Saudi's who arrived the earliest. As rooms became available, SOME of them disappeared--I'm sure they slept in any room they could. But OTHERS could not be stopped. They were everywhere, all the time! However, things quieted down fairly early in the evening, and by 10, most of us were able to sleep--except the few tired but dedicated staff who settled the midnight arriving Thais into their rooms.

Of course, lunch and dinner had been available, and we ate in groups organized by final destination in America--so I finally met the two students that would be coming to my community--welcome Asana and Aley! And Eurico, Ujang, Nastiti, Karishmabanu, Donkoru, and Christine! Montakarn and Bolkiah had not arrived yet. This was also the first taste of American food for some, and although the food was delicious by American standards, more than a few of the students were not impressed.

The next morning, a delicious (for me) breakfast buffet was waiting for us. The hotel made sure there was no pork--seeing as how most of the students were Muslim, and I imagine most of the rest were probably vegetarian. After introductions and instructions, we loaded on busses, organized by country, for a trip to the State Department and then to the embassies of their countries of origin. What a pleasure to see all those bright, excited faces, dressed in their finest, ready to meet not only officials of the American government, but also diplomats from their home countries. The State Department talked a bit about their goals for this program (being Ambassadors for their country here, and our country when they return home), and invited questions from the students. Then it was time to go to the embassies. This is my third time volunteering at an orientation, and the third time I've been assigned to the Saudi group. I sure enjoy the Saudi's! Driving through DC traffic takes a bit of time, and the group started singing. I had been worried about the orientation, thinking that I would be reminded of previous students and be sad. But it was okay--I enjoyed meeting the Indians, the Egyptians, the Thais, Philippinos, Indonesians, and the others. But when the Saudi's started singing! I was unprepared! All the many Arabic songs that had been sung in my van came back to me--Hussein, Rashed, Kenan, Abdullah, Yosef, and Mohammed seemed to be right there in the bus too, and I was glad that I was sitting near the back with no seatmate. But I recovered nicely, and thoroughly enjoyed the trip, and the kids, and the embassy--especially talking with the people, enjoying the noble portraits on the walls and the dignified diplomat that talked with the students and joined us for the magnificent feast they had prepared for us. (I hope the photos taken on the one camera we were permitted to bring inside eventually finds it's way to me!)

Afterwards, we had a chance to sightsee at the national mall which, as an immigrant, helps me better understand the roots of America.

The kids had an opportunity to try out American currency at the famous Union Station--a train station and shopping mall combined. Unfortunately, there wasn't a lot of time to sight see before we had to get back on the bus and head to the hotel.

Another tasty buffet was waiting for us at the hotel, and we had a "cultural resource time", in which we had a chance to socialize, and to see the peformances which the Philippino and Egyptian groups had prepared. They were amazing! Everybody enjoyed the performances. The energy in the room was so high, as cheering and clapping for various groups filled the air. They may have been clapping for the performances, but I think also for themselves and each other, having finally acheived the goal for which they had been working towards so long and so hard--arrival in America. They deserved every cheer and all the applause! It's hard to put a cap on all that energy, but everyone was exhausted, and quiet finally came to the hotel as everyone crashed in their beds!

Hopefully most of the students did rest because the following morning was the beginning of an intensive day of workshops. BEfore lunch we covered "Journaling for Growth" (something I think is extremely important, but I don't think all the students catch the vision), "Being an Ambassador", and "Effective communication with your host family". After Lunch, we listened to Imam Bashar Arafat talk about Culture and REligion in America, Discussed "Effectiove Communication: Conversation on Faith" (Americans are used to discussing Religion, but apparently most students are not--what's to discuss if everyone around you in your country shares the same faith?") We discussed the Budgetting exercise we did at Union Station, and had meetings with the specific placement organizations that would be working with the students while they were here in America. After dinner there was a short meeting where the procedure for catching the planes the next day (a lot of work to get 360 students on the correct plane all on the same day, all going to different places!!) We still weren't finished--a final workshop on "Presentation Skills" was given, so the students would have some preparation for sharing their culture once they arrived in their cities. Then there was time give to pack their suitcases again, and get ready for departure in the morning. THIS night it took forever to get the halls quiet. It was a time of saying good-bye to countrymen and friends made during orientations here and in their home countries, and I suspect also, a time to hide the nervousness and anxiety about the next day when they would have to face host families and communities alone. But finally, the halls were quiet, although I know for a fact that many of the kids didn't sleep at all in their rooms. I can understand this, but I'm sure it made the next day's travel and meeting of their host families that much more difficult. As a group leader and staff, I didn't actually get to bed until 1 am. And I had to be up at 4 am. I knew I would need some time to recover, not from jet lag, but orientation lag, when I finally got home too. Aley and Asana made it onto their planes fine, although changes in flights resulted in them arriving two hours EARLY in Pasco, while changes in my flights resulted in me arriving about 5 hours LATER. So, no photos of the students arriving! What a day! But everyone survived. And made some wonderful memories. That's as good as it gets!

It's that time of year again...

2009-07-31T21:12:00.000-07:00

One would think summertime would be relaxing and easy. Even though it's been many many years since I've been in school, I still expect summer to be a vacation. Of course, it's not. Actually, it's that time of year when I'm hunting for host families, and when I'm missing the student that has just left, and earlier students as well. Keeping busy keeps the sadness away, and helps me to focus on gratitude that I've had the opportunity to know the kids that I'm missing.

The last few days before Nikunj left were interesting. There were a lot of things we had wanted to do, and the time was gone. There were things that HAD to be done, and the time was gone. It is a difficult time for both students and families. Three days before leaving, Nikunj was just scratchy--impatient, stressed and frustrated. Nikunj has definate ideas about the proper way and time to do things, and I'm a lot more casual about such things--I think it will all work out. Sometimes I really wish I was more like Nikunj, but other times I'm glad I'm not. In any case, with his departure so close, his scratchiness was hard to take--that wasn't the way I wanted to remember the last few days he was here. But Nikunj is a good guy, and a combination of a few frustrations being resolved (I knew they would work out...), realizing I was unhappy, self-discipline, giving up some of his desires, and perhaps other reasons, and his scratchiness disappeared. What a relief. We had fun the last couple of days.

Nikunj found some henna (mandi) in his suitcase that he had never used while here, so we used it. I didn't know henna was so effective--my hair became BRIGHT ORANGE. The designs on my hands faded by about two weeks. I wasn't sure I liked looking like I was on fire, but everytime he saw me, Nikunj started laughing (and so did a few other people!) which was better than being anxious or frustrated.

We went to a good-bye party--the third one, and afterwards stopped by the Rennaisance Fair held at a local park (the theme of the fair was anything to do with England during the 16th century--clothes, crafts, music, acting, games, even vocabulary). I suspect Nikunj wasn't really that interested, he just wanted the last few days to be nice memories also.

There was last minute shopping.

He gave boquets to various family members to say good-bye.

And we had a final family dinner at a Mexican restaurant.

Nikunj gets top grades for being one of the few students who actually had his suitcase packed and ready ahead of time. AND his room was pretty clean when he left. We actually slept the night before he had to go.

Of course, we had to wake up at 3:30 am, be at the airport by 4:30 am, and by 6:00 am he was gone. Rap, Abdullah, and Amelia also left at the same time. It does seem like it's the hardest thing in the world to walk away from the airport.

Almost every parent of one of our students has found a way to express gratitude for hosting their child and being thankful/hoping that we will care about their kid as a parent should. And so we do. But that makes the good bye harder. I realized this year that when we send the students home, we never worry about whether they will be with people who care about them--we know they will be safe and loved. On the other hand, the real parents know their son or daughter will return--and we don't know if we will ever see them again.

I knew before he arrived that NIkunj would have to leave again. Probably the biggest reason every year I've said I don't want to host any more students. But it's better to have known them and miss them, than to never have met them at all. I have a lot to be grateful for. I keep busy (repainting, re-flooring, and otherwise making my house nicer), working, enjoying my family (everybody should have a grandbaby!), and hunting for host families (I meet the nicest people while doing this!). Three of my five new students will arrive in about 10 days, the other two a week later.

My whole week is warmer when I hear from Nikunj. I am grateful for the internet and the phone! We had a good year. I hope for a good year to come. My hair is still orange. It looks nice, actually. And seeing it makes me laugh now, too.

White water rafting

2009-07-05T17:02:00.001-07:00

I've been writting a lot these past few days, so maybe this time I'll just let the pictures do the talking. We went whitewater rafting. Unfortunately, the security team could not make it, and we had to do the best we could to survive without their assistance.

The first photo shows us suited up in wetsuits (to keep us warm in the icy water), in front of our raft.

After a short bus drive, we put on life jackets, and listened to the safety lecture (always hold your paddle tightly, if you "fall" out, float with your feet facing downstream, how to pull someone back into the boat, don't panic!!!)

Much of the river was smooth and easy to float down. Rap chased any white waves he could see. We all jumped into the water and felt how cold it was where the wet suits didn't cover us--Brrrrrr...

Finally, we got to some REAL waves. Paddle forward! Paddle! Forward! We followed the guides instructions. Yahoo!!!

It's hard to get a good photo when the raft is moving so much!

We survived! The guides were wonderful!
It was so much fun!!

After drying off and changing into (mostly) dry clothes, we drove to nearby Leavenworth, a German town that some of the students had not yet seen. (I always like to visit because it feels a bit like home--even though I left Germany when I was only six years old).

Nikunj wanted most of all to check out the hat store. And I know why!!!

(There are more hat photos, but these are embarrassing enough).
That was it! A long drive home, and the trip was done.
We had fun!
Only six days left until they leave.

Boulder cave and murals.

2009-07-05T15:58:00.000-07:00

Graduation was on June 6th. The students didn't leave until June 30. While it is true that host families DO take vacations in the summer, they certainly don't vacation ALL summer, so it seemed like a nice idea to do a few things with them so they could do more than just stay at home, and party with their friends (there were quite a few good-bye parties--some with the group, and others with friends from school/church/the neighborhood). Nikunj was able to go on a tour of California and a few other places for two weeks, so he missed the trip to the roller coaster park and Boulder Cave, but joined us for a later trip.

I suspect that my group is more interested in visiting the city than in seeing nature, but I enjoy nature very much, and am always happy to find a reason to go to the cool and green mountains. This was my main excuse for dragging them all to Boulder Cave. It was "only" a two-hour drive away and the whole group except Nikunj was able to come. When we finally arrived, we hiked for maybe 30 minutes and arrived at the cave and waterfall. We climbed among the rocks behind the waterfall, and fortunately nothing worse happened than that we got wet--this is a careful group. A little further away, we entered the real cave and walked through blackness so black that our eyes could distinguish nothing. Good we had flashlights! My security team decided it was too safe and boring, and used the opportunity to leap out at me from behind some rocks. I have a few more grey hairs now than I did before! There are supposed to be bats living in the cave, but we didn't see any. After only a short while we were able to see natural light again and were able to come out the other side. We hiked back to the car, had a simple picnic (nobody complained, but I could tell they were hoping for tastier food), and then we headed for Sunnyside.

My daughter, Julie, is an art teacher in Sunnyside. She is an amazing teacher--the only art teacher I've ever seen with world maps hanging on her walls. Sunnyside is a small farming community with gang problems. One of the things gangs do is cover large spaces with graffiti. So Julie has started some groups on painting murals on some of these large spaces. It looks so much nicer than the graffiti, the area around the murals becomes more inviting for good people, and the community gets involved. In some ways, the murals actually reduce crime. It is a wonderful way that Julie uses her talents to make a positive difference in her community and the lives of her students. I wanted my students to be part of this and with not much preparation time Julie found things for them to paint (These murals look easy but a lot of planning and work is necessary for them to look good!) They did a nice job and reduced some of the hours Julie needed to complete this project. Again, this may be something that means more to me than to the students, but I'm glad they had the opportunity to help make a difference in an unusual way.

Two trips

2009-07-05T14:53:00.000-07:00

Although all my students are now back in their countries, I have some unfinished business on this blog, one of which is to mention two trips I took them on.

The first trip was not very successful--It was a three hour drive to get to our destination. Two members of the group were not able to join us. After an hour of driving, a sudden thumping noise made it clear that I had a flat tire. We were surrounded by farm fields and hot weather. We were missing the tools needed to change the tire. I had four energetic teenagers in the car. It took more than two hours and $400 to take care of this problem. THEN I still had another two hours of driving to get to the park. Once I got there, everyone scattered and it took a long time to find everyone. My shoe broke (my NEW shoe). I realized I had locked the keys in the car. Lunch was a problem because we got there so late everybody wanted to enjoy the time left at the park--so we ate only part of the lunch I had carefully prepared at home. Everything was disorganized. Some of the guys were clowning around so much that it took an extra hour to leave the park at closing time. I was frazzled and exhausted.

The second trip was very different. Of course, nothing is perfect, and we had some very similar problems. But because we had cell phones, I was able to call for help and it came quickly from the nearby small town when I developed car trouble. I was so fortunate as to have enough money to pay for the car repairs. One of the boys' host moms from another town that was going to meet us at the park happened to be driving right past the place where we were stuck, and took all the kids to our destination so not ALL of us would have to wait around for the repairs. I was grateful to get to the park only a short while after they did, and joined them at the water slides and had fun with them. We occassionally ran into Amelia, who had come with a different group, and I was happy to see her. When my flip flops came apart, the people at the park gave me some duct tape that held them together for the rest of they day, and they were equally helpful when I realized that I had (again!) locked the keys in my car. I was very grateful. Since it was at the end of the year, the students didn't have a lot of money left, but we had brought some simple food that was quick and easy to eat and were able to spend as much time as possible enjoying the park. The park stayed open unexpectedly longer than we thought so we were able to take full advantage of the opportunity to be there. It was a wonderful trip and we had a great time enjoying the water slides and the roller coasters. Abdullah and Mohammed, as on several other excursions, took the part of being my security team. They were very efficient, and funny, as they checked for bombs and snipers! Nawaz enjoyed roller coasters for the first time, and Rap was happy to "jack" Abdullah's small stuffed banana when Abdullah won a giant toy banana later. It was a tired but happy group that finally went to sleep at the end of this long and full day.

If the two trips sound a little suspicious, there is a reason why. They are actually the same trip--perhaps slightly exaggerated in both versions. But everything really did happen. It all depends on the viewpoint. I mention these two versions here as an example of the difference our attitude makes. I have found that we find what we are looking for, and if we are looking for reasons to be unhappy, we can find them in the same circumstances that we can find reasons to be happy. On the whole, despite the $400 to repair the tires (which I would have had to pay anyways), it was a good trip--and I think my hearing will recover from Nawaz' "enthusiasm" in my ear when we were on the roller coaster.

Most of our activities involved less things going wrong, but there was almost always something that did. I am not a trained travel agent! But we had a great time, and I appreciate the patience when something didn't turn out as we hoped--What an awesome group. And despite things that went wrong, it has been an awesome year!

How not to adjust to another culture.....

2009-07-05T07:42:00.000-07:00

Albert, our student from a few years ago is one of the kindest and most thoughtful people I know, and produced the following essay for an English class at his university in New York. I read this essay to Nikunj and Amelia a few days ago, and when they laughed about it, I asked Albert's permission to include it in this blog (of course, I didn't tell him I would be adding photos...).

How not to adjust in a foreign country.

Humans are the same regardless of place where they come from. People are likely to perceive simple emotions, such as a smile, the same way indifferently from their home culture. All of us have very similar values: to act nicely towards others, respect elders, protect the weak. Similarities between cultures are much bigger than the differences, that’s why it will be hard to fail to adjust in a foreign land. So the most important thing is to notice and exaggerate the subtle differences and convince yourself that you are never going to feel comfortable in the new place.

Understanding culture is a very important thing in adjusting to a foreign culture. Therefore it should be taken under control at the beginning. Before even coming to the foreign country you will have a temptation to research on their culture and traditions, you should resist the temptation as much as you can. Do not search on the internet about their culture and their values. Only thing you should receive the information about them is media, yellow journals and standup comedians that are mocking the country. Watching a movie about them is also very helpful, one movie is usually enough; after you watched it, try to make a conclusion about their culture only from that single movie and try to take a criticizing point of view. Form as many stereotypes about them as you can. Less you know about them and less correct knowledge, easier it is for you not to adjust there.

After coming to that country with a big baggage of stereotypes, keep them. Look for things that would support the stereotypes. And if you find something that proves you that your impression is incorrect just ignore it. You also will have lots of opportunities to form more new stereotypes. Take advantage of them. More stereotypes you have and more you stick to them easier it is fail to adjust.

You should also act the same way as you acted back home, especially if it is disrespects them. Your culture is the best, they are just very weird barbarians who do not respect your values. Let them know about that as soon as possible. Also, if you see something done here in a different way, say foreigners how it is done in your home and try to prove that your ways are the best. If you cannot prove that, try to find an example from their history that they are ashamed of and use it every time you are arguing, lots of modern countries have dark pages in their history, use them.

All people are nice inside that’s why you would have to face local people being friendly to you and trying to help you to acclimatize. Do not listen to them and reject their offers as soon as they are made. To ensure that they will never occur you should never try to make any friends there. Do not respect people around you and be annoying. Try to convince yourself that locals do not like you, because you are different from them. They would try to hurt you or to change you. Do you want that? If somebody acts friendly towards you, respond with hostility. You have lots of friends back home, isn’t that enough? Friends you have back home are the best you had, because nobody is going to like you here, you are stranger to them. Always keep that in mind!

Because of differences in food you are likely to experience stomach aches at the beginning. Over exaggerate pain you feel, make it counterweigh excitement you would feel in the beginning. Remember how did their strange food made you feel, miss your home food.

The other thing it is important to miss is your home and family, that is a very helpful tool to feel alienated. You should try to spend most of your free time alone in your room thinking about home and how much miserable you feel here. To ensure that you are not starting to acclimatize you should phone and email people back home as often as you can. Miss them as much as you can. That will consume some of your time and limit your practice of a foreign language.

Language is another important point you should consider, since it is the most important mean of communication. Therefore, do not take an opportunity to practice the foreign language with locals, never try to write down new words that you heard to study later. If you heard a word you did not know do not ask for an explanation. Less you understand what they say and less they understand you is better for achieving the desired target.

Now you see how easy it is to alienate in a new culture. Just make sure you follow the steps as completely as possible. Come to that country unprepared with a rich baggage of stereotypes. Do not get rid of them easily. Be arrogant to foreigners, do not make any friends, reject any help offered and never try to improve your language.

Graduation

2009-07-04T07:53:00.000-07:00

After working hard, or not so hard all year (, school finally ended. My students achieved good to excellent grades. Different school districts have different policies and my school district does not permit exchange students to graduate--they think that a diploma from their home country is more valuable to the students, and it is hard to match what the students learned in their home countries with graduation requirements here. In the neighboring town, the schools permit students to wear cap and gown (in the photo above, you can see that Nikunj's school does not permit that), but still they only receive a certificate of attendance. However, in either case, the students do receive special recognition at the graduation ceremony. It is true that the time allowed for a speech is very short (photo on the left shows the Kennewick High exchange students standing on the podium while one student gives the short speech), but on the other hand, most of the students graduating have no opportunity to say anything at all. Regardless, it is an exciting time when the acheivements of all the students are celebrated formally and publically. It is also a time to say good bye, for exchange students espeically, but in a large part for all of them. Life will never be the same again! It has been an honor and privilege to see all the kids, especially Nikunj grow and learn so much.

This year, I also had the opportunity to attend two other graduations besides Nikunj's. Zixu graduated with a two-year degree from the local college, and one of our former students, Curry, graduated with a BA (four-year degree) from Western Washington University. They have both done amazing jobs in a difficult language (Nikunj's English skills were quite good, even from the beginning--maybe because his native languages are somewhat related to English (I think), and all the British influence in India; but Zixu and Curry have had to struggle a lot with a language that is VERY different from their own--although ALL of them have worked hard to learn and improve their English). Curry's parents came from Hong Kong to attend her graduation and I was delighted to be able to meet them. It would have been better if we could have communicated more clearly, but it's still an honor to meet the parents of our students--to have their families become more real to us.

I don't want to give the impression that many students return to America to go to university--Only four of our eleven students have returned to America, although Hussein's university plans are not yet completed (Nikunj is very clear that he will be staying in India). Of the other students that were part of my groups (ten of them), all are staying in their countries except two, one has been accepted at a university in Canada and the other is not yet sure where he will go.

Being Ambassadors

2009-06-09T06:15:00.000-07:00

I've watched a lot of students and the effect they have had on the people they connect with. Nikunj has done some 30 formal presentations about India, and has probably reached hundreds of people and taught them more about his country. He, and the other students, have also been amazed at how little people here know about other countries.

But I am thinking about being informal ambassadors. Now that the year is almost over, I can see again how many people the students have reached. I am thinking specifically of what happened at Church last Sunday. First some background...

When we hosted our first student, Mitsuko, she came with us to our church every Sunday, eventually asking if she could help with the young children because that way she could better understand what was being taught. On Thursdays, I usually went with her to her Buddhist meetings, where I found myself in the position of teaching her about her faith, because I would translate the complex vocabulary they used into simpler English that she could understand--I learned a lot this way myself. Mitsuko was loved, and is still remembered at my church, although she left 9 years ago. The thing that is most remembered, however, is her enthusiasm, her dedication, her gentle kindness, and sweet smile. The facts about Japan have faded, but anyone who met Mitsuko feels a lot more comfortable with Japanese people.

Of course, not all students have strong faith. Religion is a difficult subject. Many students don't care to attend church (or mosque, or synagogue...) with their host families. Some host families don't attend any kind of religious services. But still, with the great potential for good and the powerful emotions that come among believers, interesting things happen when religions mix among people of good will. Which brings us back to last Sunday...

Rap chose to attend church with his host family. Since I attend the same church, I would see him here and there, getting to know, and interacting with various members of our congregation. He has no interest in changing his faith, but did think going to church was more interesting than sitting at home doing nothing while his family was attending church. He got pretty involved, made friends, and participated in a lot of activities. In our church, we feel that everybody has a contribution to make, so we don't have our leaders be the only ones who teach and talk, and everybody gets an opportunity, even the youth. Two Sundays ago, the kids in Rap's age group was asked to give talks. Raps subject was "friendship" and he talked about various examples of this that he had noticed here, and its effect on him. Usually, when we talk, we end our talk with the words "In the name of Jesus Christ, Amen". Rap had heard this all year. So, when he finished his talk, he concluded "In the name of Allah and his Prophet Mohammed." A few people in the congregation suddenly sat up straighter! This wasn't what they expected! He had said this before to a much smaller group of people and had been encouraged by our leaders that it was appropriate when talking to all of us (about two to three hundred people). I was so pleased that he had had the courage to do this, and that my leaders had encouraged him. After Rap's talk the next teenager gave her talk and everything was back to normal. The next week (last Sunday) one of the men in the congregation mentioned especially what a contribution Rap and one other exchange student had made to the group, and how privileged he felt to have had the opportunity to know them. Rap has represented his country (the Philippines), his family, AND his faith excellently well. I am so delighted with the way this turned out--it is so easy for all of us to get comfortable in our own little corner of the world, and Rap woke up my congregation just a little bit to recognizing goodness outside our usual circles.

Nikunj has not chosen to attend church with us. And he is right--if you don't believe, listening to all the talks and teaching IS boring--sometimes it's boring even if you DO believe! However, at home I've asked Nikunj many, many, more questions about his culture and Hinduism than he ever wanted to answer. Probably it wasn't fair--an older person asking so much of a teenager who is far from his usual support. I can't say I understand much even now (Nikunj recommends I ask wiser people than him and check on the internet). Still, knowing that Nikunj, every morning, is worshipping, has made me a deep impression on me. I am a better person for knowing him.

Even after hosting and being a coordinator (liason, director, supervisor....) for as long as I have, I'm still learning all the time the effect we have on each other, and how much more we have in common with each other than we have differences. It's hard to know where our actions will lead. Perhaps the exchange student (Christine from Hong Kong) I was friends with when I was in high school (I still cherish my memories of her) is part of the reason I got involved with exchange students many years later. I asked one of the high school counselors what difference 5-10 exchange students can make in a school with 1,500+ students, and she said they make a BIG difference--she is always hearing them quoted or mentioned. Whether in their families or at school, church or other activities, formally or informally, these kids are doing something important!

The countdown

2009-05-27T07:58:00.000-07:00

Aren't computers wonderful--they always know, and they tell us if we ask. And Amelia always asks, and never neglects to tell us that it's only 72 days until they go home, 64 days, 55 days, 49 days, 43 days..... As if we needed to be reminded.

I've watched these kids all year. Nikunj the most, but all of my students. And they never, never forget home. They enjoy their time here (usually), they make friends, they often (but not always) learn to love new families, and they learn a lot--more than they think--but they never forget home. We went to a balloon festival in the town of Walla Walla. There is another group of YES kids there, and one of them (Irma) is from Indonesia as Amelia is. The balloons were pretty awesome--we got there early enough to see them fill with hot air and lift off. Afterwards we ate breakfast (it was so wonderful that we found some vegetarian food for Nikunj--this has been a struggle all year!) and saw all the interesting stuff for sale in the booths. When we were ready to go, Amelia and Irma stopped at one booth where they were selling Philippino food and got some. On the way to the car I glanced at Irma and there were tears running down her cheeks--the food was so good and reminded her so much of home.

A package arrived from India last week. Nikunj was pleased because his family had sent him gifts to give us (such beautiful bead and mirror work on the purse!), and to his teachers, and FOOD! A little bit of home. The best was the chutney made by his mother's hands!!! Although he has been cheerful and happy most of the year, Nikunj, more than any student I've known has missed his family, missed his country, and stayed loyal to them in ways I didn't even know existed. His biggest smiles and heartiest laughs come when he is on the phone with them. I wonder sometimes if we are doing the right thing taking these wonderful kids away from their families for so long. But all the kids from former years are glad they came (and I am glad they came), so I continue to support this program.

This morning I made fried rice for breakfast. Nikunj has asked me whether we have good breakfasts here. Of course we have good breakfasts here! Sadly, they usually involve meat or eggs. So he just gets (sweet) cereal or (sweet) pancakes--which is not so good. But today I made fried rice, and, uncharacteristically, Nikunj said, "this is good", and ate a lot of it (so I knew he wasn't just being polite). After a few more bites, Nikunj said, "Compliments". I looked at him and he said, "I don't give compliments very much. This is good. And I didn't compliment my mother very much--but I will when I return home!" Compliments or not, I'm sure his mother knows how much he likes her cooking--certainly I do--he can't say enough about how wonderful her cooking is; and the nicest thing he says about anyone else's cooking (several Indian families around here have shared their cooking with him) is that it's almost as good as his mothers! I'm glad that I've learned to cook a few things that Nikunj likes, but I told him today the reason the rice was good is because I used his mother's chutney. Of course.

The kids are already starting to reflect on their time here. Whether it's giving compliments, looking forward to real food, dreading the temperature back home, recognizing how they've changed, realizing it will be hard to say good-bye, worrying about school, looking forward to moving on with their lives, and waiting impatiently to greet their families again whom they now know how much they love, there's a lot to think about.

Over here, we can't tell how much the kids have changed. We didn't know them before they came. But there are a few clues. One is their English--it is sooooooo much easier to talk with and understand them now (Nikunj's English was fine even at the beginning, but his accent. . . well. . .). And most of them have adjusted to temperature. The photo shows Nikunj, with hat and gloves, ready to go to school last September. Hat and gloves??? We couldn't believe it! The temperature was about 23 degrees Celcius (75 degrees Farenheit). Nice warm comfortable weather for us--but obviously not for Nikunj. Last week, same temperature, we had a water fight. It was fun. Nobody got sick. Nikunj seldom wears a coat now! Those are changes we can see. But I'm sure there are many others. As I reflect back on the year, I hope the changes are good, and that their real parents will be pleased.

I am so happy for all of them, for their good year here, for the things they've learned, for their happiness to return to their families and friends. What a privilege to have known them. I have so many things planned and to do when they are gone--I am excited my daughter, her husband, and the cutest grandson in the world (I have to show him off!) will be moving into our home. But I will miss Nikunj! Only 34 days before they leave.

Sweet lemons, festivals, and vegetarian dogs.

2009-05-20T06:09:00.000-07:00

All these years when I've been buying oranges and they didn't taste very good, I thought it was just because they weren't very ripe. After all, oranges grow far away from here and are picked green so they won't be over-ripe when they get to our store. But apparently I was wrong. It seems there are such things as sweet lemons in India, and Nikunj tells me that's what I've been buying. When we have exchange students, we expect to learn more about their countries, but I'm always surprised when we learn more about our own (but I don't know, those sweet lemons are in boxes that say "oranges".....).

There are few things that have demonstrated how great the differences are between cultures than the description Nikunj gave of his street, and that there are cows living on it. The photo shows the (American) street we live on--in the winter, just to dramatize my point--a peaceful early morning scene. Off to the sides are homes with nice lawns around them similar to our front lawn (photo taken in the summer). The only thing we ever see on our street is cars, sometimes dogs or cats, and, of course, people. Although I have never seen the street Nikunj lives on, he has described it a few times. The part that most fascinates me is his description of providing food for the animals. Apparently there is an empty lot on the street where a bunch of cows live. And one of the things his family does is feed one of these cows. It comes to their gate at meal time, bangs on the gate with it's horns, and waits for someone to come and feed it. . . . !!!!! . . . . I can't even imagine this. There is a dog that comes by for food too. Over here we have dogs as pets, but we call the dog pound to take any unclaimed dogs away (or we allow it to become our pet). If I understood correctly, there is no special food for the street animals--just whatever the people of the house didn't eat. After thinking about this I said, "wait a minute, don't dogs eat meat?" But Nikunj assures me that even with the teeth of a carnivore, the dog his family feeds is a vegetarian.

For the record, Nikunj's family also regularly provides food for less fortunate people.

Then there are festivals. Although, by now, I have seen Nikunj perform his traditional Khatak dancing many times, he has also made me aware of how much dancing of other types is a part of life in India, or at least in his province of Gujarat. When there is a festival, people in brilliantly colored clothes dance in the streets--probably the same streets as where all those cows live--usually in honor of a god. The photo to the side (the homecoming parade put on by Nikunj's High School) is the closest thing I could find to a festival here. Not colorful. No dancing. No cows. There are usually a bunch of cool cars though. THEY march. WE watch. Actually, I think the festival where everyone dances sounds more fun. I remember last year when Egypt won the Africa cup in soccer--Hussein showed me videos of all the Egyptians dancing and celebrating in the streets. That also sounds more fun. Sometimes we have dances at Church--but it's not the same! I think Americans are too serious in public.

Well, there it is, some of the things I've learned about India, and America.

Big trip continued

2009-05-16T06:06:00.001-07:00

The previous post described Wednesday night, Thursday, and Friday morning and afternoon. But we did more on Friday.....

In the evening we went to a performance called "Walking with Dinosaurs." In the Key Arena--a sports arena at the Seattle Center we saw life-sized dinosaurs move across the floor telling the story of dinosaurs as scientists believe it happened. It was beautifully done and very realistic, especially when one considers that the dinosaurs were not computer enhanced as they would be in movies. I was also pleased that Azamat (He will return to Kyrgyzstan in a couple of months) was able to join us. He watched my group's behavior (just having fun and enjoying themselves) and after a few minutes he asked me--"was I like this when I was living with you?" Since I remember times when he did MORE strange and energetic stuff (only some of which is described in my post last summer), I could only laugh and say "yes!" In any case, we had a fun time watching those dinosaurs, and finally headed back to the hotel, where Nawaz continued his dedicated efforts to learn to swim. We are going to have to give him further opportunities when we return home.

The next morning we took a ferry to Tillicum Island. This Island is a bit of a nature preserve and camping area, but the main attraction is the "village." It's not really much of a village, mostly just a few buildings in which items are displayed from the past of some of the Northwest Native Americans (very different culture from Native Americans in other areas of the country), and a place to cook and eat a traditional dinner and watch a dance and performance that tells some of the stories typical of this culture. Since there were never enough of these people to create a civilization with many buildings and artifacts, the most well known artifacts of their culture are the totem poles (which give the history of a family or tribe, or even a person--double click on the photo if you want to see more clearly), and their dances. Dances were considered as belonging to the person or family who first performed them, and the Native Americans who owned this village were careful to tell us that they had the permission of the family who owned the dances to perform them. The dinner was delicious too, and even Nikunj was able to enjoy it as the only meat served was salmon which had been cooked separately from everything else. Afterwards, we checked out the small store with souveniers, and the woman in the photo came outside and sang a song to us wishing us peace and friendship while beating on her drum. She told us her son had made the drum for her so it was special to her--and then added, "it is also for sale."

After a little time to walk around and enjoy the Island and nature, we again got on the ferry for the return trip to Seattle. This time the sun was
shining, and we were able to take some beautiful pictures of the city. It was a 45 minute trip that half the students used to sleep (these guys have an amazing ability to sleep any time they are sitting--I hate to think what they do in school!). Finally, we were back in Seattle, and spent a few hours checking out Pike's market--a famous shopping area in Seattle, full of little shops with unsual items in them. I thought the kids would find things here for their families back in their countries (they never forget their families back home!), but mostly they just looked around--since it was typical Seattle weather--rain (with small patches of sunshine)--it was nice that most of the market is roofed and even underground.

Finally, around 6 at night, we got in the car and headed home. It's supposed to be only a 3.5 hour drive. We stopped at 7 to eat a picnic dinner--but in the middle of making the food, the rain that I thought we left behind in Seattle caught up to us, so we got back in the car as soon as we could. After dropping all the kids at their homes (another 1.5 hours), Nikunj and I finally got home at midnight. I'm so glad we came back Saturday night, so that we had Sunday to recover from this trip!

Big trip

2009-05-13T09:07:00.000-07:00

After waiting all year, and especially, waiting for the weather to get nicer again, we finally went on our trip to Olympia (the State capital), a small city, and Seattle, a much larger city. We left Wednesday evening after school. I think most of the kids would have preferred leaving Wednesday morning so they could miss one more day of school, but this IS an academic program and I don't like to plan too many days where they miss school. Of course, for most of the kids, the year of school here doesn't mean very much--they will have to repeat the year when they return home, but one of my kids is hoping his year counts when he gets back to his country. Most Americans don't know that American schools have so little respect in other countries that a year of it is worth nothing (officially) when the students return home. This is humiliating to me--I know we do have high quality classes--but there's nothing I can do about it except maybe complain in this blog. For the record, since our schools are required to provide education for ALL students, and we have chosen to integrate all levels of learning in the same schools, the average level of education may be lower in general for all our schools, BUT we do accommodate the intelligent kids, and the ones who want to work--there is a lot of education available to them.

Anyways, back to the trip....

We were joined by a host mom and student from Tacoma (city near Seattle). They joined us because they were far from other YES students. Some of my plans didn't work out as I anticipated, but we spent the first night in a hotel (two rooms--girls and boys) about halfway to our destination, and spent much too much time in the morning trying to get everybody into the cars so we could continue on our way. I am sure if the horseback riding I had planned at this location had worked out, the kids would have been much more punctual (although it is hard to organize six kids from such a variety of backgrounds). The photo was taken in a Thai restaurant where we ate dinner (Nikunj, Nawaz, Amelia, Abdullah, Rap, and Mohammed). By the way, if anyone wants to see the photos larger, you only have to double click on them and the photo will enlarge--to return to the blog you then have to hit the "back" or "previous screen" button.

To get to Seattle, we have to drive over the mountains. Although our specific area is very flat, we do live in the middle of the Rocky Mountains--a large valley in the middle. There is a fairly high group of mountains between us and the coast, often dangerous with ice and snow in the winter. But the roads were dry this time. Nevertheless, there was snow at the sides when we reached the highest point, and we stopped for 20 minutes to have a snowball fight. None of my students has had much experience with snow, and I didn't insist that they listen to me when I showed them how to find softer snow inside the large snow piles. Instead they started to throw any snow they could loosen, and this late in the year, the surface snow had melted, refrozen, melted, refrozen, (warm spring days, cold nights) until it was pretty icy. However, after being hit in the jaw by a chunk of ice, I will remember to make SURE they know better next time (I'm fine, don't worry). Still it was mostly pretty fun, and a nice break on a long drive.

We finally made it to Tacoma, where we stopped, parked, and took a bus to the Museum of Glass. This was a replacement activity for the horseback riding, but with some of the exhibitions closed for updating, it was a bit disappointing. There was some amazing glass art, however, and we saw glass being formed and shaped in the hot furnaces of the glass studio.

We made it to our appointment at the Capital building in Olympia just two minutes late, and thought we had missed the tour guide, but she came looking for us, and then showed us where the laws that govern our state our made. The building is beautiful, and we were given some insights into what happens in this building. The tour guide took a photo of our whole group, so I had to include that one!

Afterwards, we drove back to Tacoma, where our next hotel was, and settled in, and found a restaurant to eat at. The hotel had a swimming pool, so we had the opportunity to swim, and to help Nawaz learn to swim. I'm not sure many people have the opportunity to learn from so many teachers!

We managed to get on the road a little sooner than the previous day, and headed for the Museum of Flight in the Seattle area. There were models of the first known planes, modern planes, and even some from space--the kids were able to see the inside of the space station, and walk through a retired "Airforce One" plane--the President's plane.

After lunch at Uwajamaya's (a large Asian store with lots of different small restaurants in the back where I hoped Nikunj could find some vegetarian food--which he did), we continued on to the Seattle Center--home of the Space Needle, the famous landmark of Seattle. Still, it costs $16 just for an elevator ride to the top of the Space Needle, and we decided to see the other things at the Center. We checked out the Science Fiction Museum, and the Music Museum. There are some who might think that Science fiction is an unworthy subject for a museum, but when I think of all the inspiration and dreams that are now reality but started as an idea in someone's mind, or a story of far away, I think it was interesting to explore. However, the music museum ended up more interesting as the kids had opportunities to play various instruments and have other experiences with music--another source of inspiration. I should say that this is a wonderful group of kids. They were fun, well behaved, helpful, and interested (though not all of them all the time). And all of them were watchful for Mohammed's host mom, who has trouble getting around--though Abdullah and Mohammed were her special helpers. And they were pretty patient when things went wrong or took a long time--not PERFECTLY patient, but enough to make this a pleasant trip.

Well, there's more to the trip, but this is enough for today.

American culture

2009-04-27T08:46:00.001-07:00

Although I haven't mentioned much in this blog, every month or two, I invite all my group to an enrichment activity. I've already made one entry about some of the volunteer activities we've done, this time I'm going to describe some of the American culture we've explored.

Back in September, on one day there were about four activities going on in this community, so we did the best we could to see a number of them. That was the day we spent the morning volunteering to help with the CPR classes. In the afternoon we went to "Heritage Days", a display at Sacajewea Park showing what life was like for the earliest white settlers in America. We heard music and saw a number of artifacts and demonstrations. After seeing the dental tools used by those early pioneers, I think I won't complain so much about dentists nowadays! The following morning we drove about 45 minutes to get to a hot air balloon rally. This was my first time to take the kids, and I didn't really know what was happening, so we arrived a little too late, but still, seeing all those colorful balloons lifting off into the sunrise was beautiful. The kids were hoping to be able to ride in the balloons, but we were not able to arrange that. We will try again in May in a different town.

Of course, all the kids are learning lots of American culture every day as they deal with their families and schools. Some of that is not so fun, and many times even quite difficult, so the kids are usually happy when an activity comes up. The university I attended before marriage has some wonderful dance groups that they send on performances around the world. The BYU Ballroom dancers even performed at the Beijing Olympics, so I was very pleased to hear they came here and took most of my group to see them. We weren't allowed to take photos during the performance but they were amazing. Afterwards, a couple of the dancers agreed to a group photo with the group.

In November we went to the town of Toppenish, to see a native American Pow Wow. The native Americans (also sometimes called American Indians) are struggling, as are many, many cultures, to keep the best of their culture alive in a world where technology and instant communication makes it easier and easier to know and follow the latest "cool" trends and activities. A Pow Wow used to be a festival for the native Americans where they would dance, call on their gods, and enjoy the friendship of family and friends from far away. Now it seems to be more of a dance competition, but they still call on their gods, and enjoy friendship and family. Nawaz and Abdullah made a point of talking to the master of ceremonies, and he was delighted that some "Indian Indians" were joining the "American Indians" at one of their special occasions. That there were two Saudi's and an Indonesian also part of our group seems to have escaped his attention. But several times he announced our presence, and called on the Indians to join in the public non-competetive dancing, Nawaz and Nikunj were embarrassed, but finally joined in. There were feathers flying, and brilliant colors on the beaded clothing worn by the competetors, and the drums were pounding so loudly that Yosef ended up with a headache. But the dancing was fascinating to watch--I also got a cultural experience! The town of Toppenish is actually on an Indian Reservation, and the people there, as everywhere, work to keep their town alive and growing. They have chosen to paint large murals on the walls of many of their buildings, hoping to pull in tourists. I don't know if it's working--I've never really seen very many people in this town, but the murals are interesting and creative, and we enjoyed looking at them, as well as visiting the native American museum, and playing some games while we waited for the Pow wow to start in the evening. For me, the best part of the whole day was the ride home. It was late at night (the Pow wow started late, and it took a long time before they finished all their chants and prayers and started dancing), and we had to drive for an hour to get home. I had appreciated the prayers during the Pow Wow, asking for the Creator to be with them, but I'm not sure any of the students understood what was happening at that time. But it was on my mind when Abdullah spoke up during the drive and suggested we all sing songs representative of our different faiths. So the three Muslims tried to come up with songs they all knew (not easy with Yosef and ABdullah from Saudi Arabia and Amelia from Indonesia), Nikunj represented Hindus, and that left me with Christianity. Somehow, under those circumstances, all of us had trouble thinking of songs, and we had no instruments, bad acoustics, and had to sing as loud as we could so the people in the back could hear. Actually, we sounded horrible. But I loved the feeling in the van. Nobody was asked to give up anything that was important to them, everyone was interested in each other, and all of us were following God. If only everyone in the world could have such an experience!

In December I didn't plan any activities. I have learned a lot about other cultures by now, and I think probably our Christmas celebrations might have been disappointing to some of the students, still, December is a busy month and I didn't want to take the students away from their host families. During the winter break, with no school going on, the kids were bored, and I tried to set up a gingerbread house making activity, but we had unusual snow this year and the three students that live far from my home didn't make it for reasons of safety.

In January, most of our group went to a City Council meeting. Abdullah's host dad is the mayor of Richland, so not only did we see and hear how the city makes plans for its development, and solves problems among its residents, but Mayor Fox very graciously introduced each student to the audience (and local TV) and welcomed them all to this area.

In February we didn't do anything--my new grandson and other personal activities kept me busy, but in March we visited the Kennewick Police Station, and got a tour from the police sergeant. The police department has just recently moved into a new building, and they are so happy to have sufficient room and technology to do a better job of protecting the people of our town. Sergeant Schwartzwalter gave many details and stories that explained the purpose of the various rooms, which otherwise would have just looked like ordinary rooms to us.

In March we also had the unexpected opportunity to visit the inside of a hospital. Abdullah was not able to join us at the police station because of stomach pain, which resulted in him having an operation to take his appendix out two days before. We all went and visited him in the hospital after leaving the police station. Abdullah seemed happy to see us, but I'm sure we made him tired and we didn't stay long. (For the record, Abdullah returned to school the following week, and he is healthy and happy now.)

In April, we were able to visit with a judge at the County Courthouse--the police having told us of this opportunity where the judge would be talking with citizen volunteers. We were joined by other PAX students and their coordinator. Of course, listening to the judge was not really exciting--and the things he told the volunteers were not that relevant to exchange students, but he did take half an hour afterwards and answered questions from our students, and we were able to get a group photo. He was delighted to talk to the students, explaining that although what he does now is what is most important for him, he used to be a high school teacher and continues to enjoy high school students.

Well, that's all for this post. It's a long one. We still have some other activities planned, which I will mention as they happen. It's only two and a half months before the year is over. I can't believe how fast the time has gone--although after so many years of being involved with exchange students, I should be used to it. I am glad to have the opportunity to know so many of these wonderful kids!

Skiing

2009-04-19T07:35:00.000-07:00

It has been a long time since I've posted on this blog. My new grandson is part of the reason, but there have been many other things that have also been keeping me occupied. Hopefully, most of that is resolving now and I will be posting again.

I wanted to talk a little bit about winter. It seems like most of my students come from very warm places, and it is always fun to see them excited and enjoying their first snow. But it doesn't last. Seeing is not enough. Then they have to make a snowman (although the snow was too dry and Nikunj didn't get a chance to do that). Then we have to go sledding and skiing. We didn't really have enough snow--there shouldn't be grass showing through the whiteness, but it's all we had so we took advantage of it. We got our warm coats, snow pants, and snow boots (we have a nice supply purchased from second hand stores, or left by our previous students who left them behind because they didn't need a warm coat in their hot country). Our nephew joined us, and Rap did too. We went to one of the golf courses in town with some nice hills at the edges. And down we went. It is the most fun (for the people watching), when the sled turns over and both sled and rider go tumbling down the hill with arms and legs going in all directions, and that lovely cold snow getting into their clothes. Before anyone gets too cold, we usually head home, and ideally drink lots of hot chocolate.

Sledding is not as cool as skiing however. So most winters we go skiing at least once. It's very expensive, so we don't do it more often. This year we went to the "Bluewood" ski area, the lift tickets and ski rentals being the Christmas present we gave to all the kids--in this case Eric, Nikunj, Albert, and Azamat.

Azamat has skied for years in the mountains of Kyrgyzstan. Albert learned to ski when he lived with with us and we are still afraid to look when he heads down the hill--but he has learned and has never gotten hurt. We are very grateful for this!!!

Nikunj, well, this was his first time, so he spent all his time on the bunny hill. I'm pretty sure he wasn't enjoying spending so much time in the snow but he kept with it and slowly improved. Most of the time I stayed with him, and Azamat stopped by once or twice and gave lessons (useful to me too!).

Eric was the only one that chose to go snowboarding rather than skiing. Snowboarding is apparently more cool than skiing, although the rest of us enjoyed the skiing. Eric did a great job snowboarding and it was a pleasure to watch him ease down the hills. Besides the bunny hill, there were quite a few more difficult slopes. People in our group tried to stick together, but with so many different skill levels, it didn't always work out. Still various people would meet together and at least go up the lifts together. It was a pleasure to see Azamat skiing. He made it look so easy. We didn't go skiing the year he lived with us because he kept telling us how much better the skiing was in Kyrgyzstan. But this year he realized that our ski areas are a little more challenging than he originally thought. He talked me into going up with him once, and did his best to be polite and not laugh at me as I got stuck in the snow, or fell over, or my legs needed to rest so often. He's a gracious teacher.

We were all pretty tired at lunch time, and enjoyed the food from home (sandwiches, juice, and hot chocolate). It wasn't a gourmet meal, but after being outdoors for several hours, it tasted great!

Then we headed back up the hills. I should mention that it was unusually warm, and something was falling from the sky that wasn't rain, but not quite snow either. It didn't stop us from skiing, but we did get pretty wet. Since it started getting dark about 4:00 pm, we didn't stay that long, only a few hours more.
By this time, Nikunj was good enough that I left him to go with my husband for one last trip down the mountains. It took a long time because I was so tired by this time, but it was a good day. Nikunj and I caught a cold from being so wet, but soon recovered. I felt bad that I hadn't made sure everyone had dry clothes to change into (I had never gotten wet while skiing before), but I am happy that everyone had a good time and no one got hurt.

When I asked Nikunj a few days later, if he had had enough snow yet, he had. Snow is nice for skiing and sledding, and it looks beautiful, but the cold and cloudyness gets old, and spring just can't come soon enough!

Family Christmas

2009-02-13T16:15:00.000-08:00

Christmas eve is when the family celebrations start. Our tradition is to go to my husband's brother's home with as much of the family as can be gathered. This year there were some 60 people in their home, with another 30 that couldn't make it (my husband has three brothers and two sisters, all of whom have three or more children, and several of whom have grandchildren). We were VERY pleased that Albert and Azamat, (students from previous years) were able to visit for Christmas--how happy to see them again! After a very nice dinner and time to talk, each family presents a talent. This is usually more fun for the little guys than the big ones. This year we let Nikunj represent our family, and he willingly danced yet again. By now I have seen him dance several times and I always enjoy it--this time much of our larger family also had the privilege of seeing it. There was also piano, guitar, and violin music; and group and individual singing. Some years people have told stories or shown pictures, paintings, or videos. Some of the participants are very young so anything could happen, but there is a lot of talent in the family and all efforts are warmly appreciated.

By nine o'clock, everybody is ready to go home, and go to sleep. There are usually last minute preparations to take care of for Christmas day, but as our kids have gotten older, we've been able to do them in the morning because everyone likes to sleep in.

Nikunj contributed a Christmas rangoli--and said it was the fastest he'd ever made one--15 minutes--because he wanted to hurry and get out of the cold (see the snow at the side!).

Nina and Nathan don't have a whole lot of money this year, so their contribution to Christmas was to make a nice breakfast for everyone. Sadly, they slept in even longer than we did, so Julie and I ended up making most of the breakfast. It was delicious.

Opening the Christmas stockings was fun. Usually stockings just have candy, fruit, and other small things in them. Last year Julie put silly string in everyone's stockings, and we had a lot of fun. This year she put giant balloons in for everyone to throw at each other.

Present opening is fun. We don't have a very expensive Christmas so we had a lot of little presents--except this one of Nikunj's. It was huge, and it was heavy. But.....

...everytime Nikunj unwrapped it, there was another box inside...

...until finally there was a tiny little box with a Harry Potter souvenir in it.

(The heaviness came from the bag of apples that was also in the box).

That was fun!

We have so much that it is hard to choose Christmas present; and for exchange students who can only take two suitcases back to their countries, it is even more difficult to choose something. So we decided to give an experience, and rented ski equipment and bought ski lift tickets for everyone. That's for the next blog.

For the remainder of Christmas day, we enjoyed our gifts and each other's company. In the evening we went next door and had a wonderful traditional Christmas dinner with our niece and nephew and their kids.

Good news!

2009-01-20T20:08:00.000-08:00

It has been very busy lately. So I haven't written much. And today I won't write much either. Becoming and grandmother may not have much to do with exchange students, but I have to show at least a few pictures of my new grandson.

All those sentimental songs about how fast time passes, and how soon our kids grow up, they are true. Who would have thought my baby would have a baby? But she did, and he's perfect.

There were a lot of people who wanted to hold little Benny. All our children were able to be at the hospital. Good wishes came from all around the world. Although we had to wait two weeks longer than we expected, it was a good day!

Benny and his father.

Christmas preparations

2009-01-03T09:40:00.000-08:00

The biggest holiday of the year is Christmas. The month of December has concerts, movies, music, parties, more emphasis on helping the poor, more emphasis on treating everyone kindly. A lot of the holiday has become very commercial with large emphasis on gift giving, but the religious significance is the sweetest. Our family celebration tends to be low key and not as expensive.

Perhaps the first official Christmas activity was the large exchange student Christmas party hosted by another coordinator, which we also attended. It was a rather formal party with a few wonderful performances by students (Nikunj impressed everyone with his dancing) and a performance by a middle school steel drum group that was amazing. Probably the best part was when the students got to try out the steel drums themselves.

Gradually, more and more people put Christmas lights outside their homes, on the trees, bushes, and the houses. Not everyone does this, and we don't because no-one can see our home from the road, but it seems friendly and cheerful driving past all the twinkling, colorful lights now that the sun sets by about 4 in the afternoon.

For me, one of the nicest parts is decorating our home and the Christmas tree. When I was a child living in Germany, we had a real pine tree, decorated with candles and other decorations. Now we use a plastic tree and electric lights. I liked the candles--but it is nice we don't have to worry about the tree burning as it gets more and more dry as the month passes. On the other hand, our home doesn't have the wonderful smell of pine branches in it. But decorating the tree is my favorite family activity, usually with Christmas music playing in the background. It was very special this year to have all our kids (including son-in-law and two of our foreign kids) with us! My daughters and I are the final decision makers on whether the decorations have been arranged artistically enough. The tree was beautiful when done, and I am not responsible for the strange faces my otherwise handsome son makes! The rest of the house needed to be decorated a bit too.

Our daughter, Nina, has her birthday on December 13, so we (our family, and Nathan's family) planned a surprise birthday party for her. Sadly we arrived too late to make it a real surprise, but it was a happy gathering just the same. Since it is so close to Christmas we also made "Gingerbread houses", a traditional Christmas activity, which we all enjoyed. The houses are made with gingerbread cookies or crackers, and decorated with frosting and candy. All different types of homes were made, and Ben (as usual) decided to be different and made a space shuttle.

Actually, winter break had started and I thought my students might be bored so I planned a gingerbread house activity them students too--but we had a lot of snow that day, making the roads slippery and dangerous (it takes time to make the roads safe because we don't have a lot of snow removal equipment in our community since it seldom snows here). I asked the students far away from us not to come, although Amelia and Rap, who live quite close to us did make it. Amelia made a cute house. Rap didn't use enough frosting so his fell apart every time, and Nikunj made a model of his home in India. It was sad that Abdullah, Yosef, and Nawaz didn't make it, but I'm glad they didn't risk any accidents.

My favorite part of Christmas is that families get together. I am very lucky to have all my children living so close--this is not usual in America. But additionally, two of our previous students also came for Christmas. Albert arrived on the 22nd of December--after a lot of trouble with cancelled or missed flights due to the weather, and Azamat arrived on the 23rd. Of course, Albert, Nikunj, and Azamat don't know each other, so it may not have seemed like family to them, but it did to me--I was so very happy to have these two much loved young men join the other people I love for the holidays. Hussein called from Egypt and Putra from Indonesia, Aditi, Gordana, Curry, sent greetings, and cards arrived from other places, people, family, and friends. I hear from most of them at other times too, but everyone all at once is as close to Heaven as I can imagine.

Snow

2008-12-17T06:55:00.000-08:00

One of the very fun things about hosting an exchange student is that many of the things that have become ordinary for us are new to them. We can see ourselves and our country with new eyes and appreciate simple things that we forget about. Snow is one of these things. All six of my students come from very warm countries and have been looking forward to snow. Two days ago, snow fell. It started in the evening, and continued all night, and in the morning the whole world looked different. Watching Nikunj enjoy the snow is almost as fun as if it was our first time too.

Our little community sounds different when there's snow on the ground. The sounds are muffled and quieter, you can hear the stillness in the air, and you can almost, almost hear the snow falling--at least it seems like it, though we know that something so light and soft hitting the ground can't possibly make a sound loud enough for us to hear. It is very peaceful.

Snow makes interesting new ideas come to mind. And everybody responds differently. I love this photo of Egypt discovering that throwing icy cold snowballs at friends is fun. Obviously, Azerbaijan already knows!!

Of course, snow is a lot of work. Because it is slippery, we have to remove it from places where we are driving. On roads, there are snowplows, and the heat of so many cars using the road melts a lot of it, but our driveways need individual attention.

Somehow, though, shoveling the driveway quickly becomes something more than cold boring work. (look carefully at the picture and you will see a whole shovel full of snow flying towards Nikunj). Softly falling snow is very peaceful, but shoveling the driveway quickly becomes a noisy activity!

Nikunj learns quickly. Taking this photo without getting hit by a snowball was not easy!

Making applesauce

2008-12-02T05:36:00.000-08:00

One of the rules exchange students are supposed to follow is that they should join in family activities, help with chores, and do what the host family asks. I don't know about chores--getting teenagers from ANY country to do daily assigned chores is a bigger job than I usually try to enforce. But most of the time I can get help with unusual jobs--raking leaves, moving furniture, taking the groceries into the house (and checking if I bought anything tasty), or, in this case, making apple sauce. Students from cold countries usually understand the need to store food better than students from hot countries where food grows all year long. There are seasons even in hot countries though, and Nikunj says his family does store some food until it becomes available the next year. Being able to buy almost anything we want at almost any time of the year makes it strange for Americans now to feel a need to store food. But our family does--because our church tells us we should be prepared and we should have a year's supply of food always available. This is not easy to do-- our house doesn't have a lot of space to store that much food, and it costs money and is extra work. But we try.

This year we canned grape juice and applesauce at home. The grape juice was very easy to process, and I didn't need much help. But the applesauce was a lot of work. So Nikunj helped, and Zixu a little bit as well. Of course, everyone complained--Nikunj most of all. But he also helped the most. When we finally stopped, he felt bad that maybe we had stopped sooner because of his complaining (there were LOTS more apples), and said he would be willing to help make more applesace--then he laughed and added "but I will complain the whole time!"

We also purchased a lot of other foods and canned goods from the store. Our pantry--of which this photo shows only a small part a quarter--is well stocked now. On the bottom shelves are the grape juice and some of the applesauce--We ended up with over 50 quarts of grape juice and the same of applesauce. Dried milk, whole grains, oil, sugar, beans, and more are also part of our storage. It feels good to be prepared for hard times!

Volunteer activities

2008-11-29T07:17:00.000-08:00

Although I haven't posted anything about group activities, we have been having them, and it has been pretty fun. The most recent group activity was raking leaves and going to a movie. Two of my students live on alpaca farms, and when leaves fall from the trees it is a lot of work to remove them so that the grass can continue to get sunshine. So one of our volunteer activities was to rake leaves on one of the farms. It wasn't exactly a FUN activity, but it was nice to see each other and to do a kindness for someone else. Yosef had a hundred ideas on how to make this job easier, but, sadly, we didn't have any equipment except the rakes. Rap, Nikunj, and Nawaz (the alpaca farm belongs to Nawaz's host family) also participated, and when we were finished, the farm looked a little neater. Afterwards we ate and watched a 3D movie before everyone went home again. Amelia joined us for the movie.

Another volunteer activity we did was in October, when we went to the "Bishop's storehouse", an organization run by my church for the purpose of taking care of ourselves when we need help, and also to collect things for distribution world-wide--blankets and survival supplies during disasters, school supplies for disadvantaged children, bandages for lepers, lots of different things. Our job was to repackage boxes of fruit and vegetables into family sized packages so that local families could be supplied with food. Abdullah, Yosef, Nawaz, Amelia, and Nikunj worked so well and fast that they had a hard time giving us enough to do. We ended up preparing some things for the following week, and helping load a truck with food for families in communities further away. Everyone worked hard when there was something to do, and had fun the rest of the time. I really appreciate Nawaz's patience--he is being so kind about Nikunj's mischeif! By the time we finished, everyone was really hungry and we ate at a "Mongolian" restaurant before everybody went home again and I went to work.

In September we helped at a Cardiopulmonary Resuscitation (CPR) workshop. The hospital where I work had the goal to teach CPR to 2,000 people in our community. If more people know CPR, then they can keep people they know or love alive long enough for the ambulance to arrive. All six students came (aren't they a friendly and good-looking bunch?) and were asked to help register the people who attended. Zixu also joined us. This was the first event like this in our area, so I don't think 2000 people came, but it was still quite a few. There was also time for everyone to learn CPR themselves (that's what they are doing in the photo) well enough to teach other people. So everyone learned CPR and recieved a kit with DVD and information to take home so they can teach others. Afterwards we did some other activites, which I will mention later since they weren't volunteer activities. It was a busy day!

I love my country

2008-11-24T08:46:00.000-08:00

We invite students to live with us for many reasons. One is that we enjoy learning about their cultures. On one of our bookshelves we have the flags of everyone that has lived in our home, as well as the flags of every country that our family has lived in. One of the first things we learned is that EVERYBODY loves their country. The boys are a lot more obvious about showing it though.

The previous Christmas, when Nath and Albert came to visit, we had "flag wars". With an Egyptian, an Azeri, a Kazakh, a Thai, and a Chinese in the house, the placement of various flags in positions of honor became a favorite pastime. China and Kazakhstan dropped out of the contest for reasons of preserving their dignity, and we didn't have a flag from Azerbaijan at the time, but Egypt and Thailand kept the contest going until Nath returned home. Various attempts were made to place the favored flag higher than the other countries, and finally (to my amusement) the Egyptian and Thai flags ended up on our Christmas tree, where they worked themselves higher and higher until the angel at the top of the tree was holding them. Really!! Gentlemen!!! Behave yourselves!!!!

Then there was the "discussion" last year about which culture was the oldest--India, China, or Egypt. I'm not getting involved in that one!!! Aditi quickly dropped out of the controversy (she's not one to argue), leaving Zixu and Hussein to work it out between them. We had to check the internet and did eventually establish that "zero" was discovered by India first, which spread to Muslims, who took it to Europe. But still, all three cultures are ancient and honorable. Just for the record, because of it's extreme youth, America is not considered a valid entry in any of these discussions!! The Americans in our home have learned to stay out of these debates.

This year, so far, there have been no flag wars--although we expecting Albert back for a Christmas visit, and Azamat may be able to visit as well--anything could happen! There is no doubt that Nikunj loves India and is VERY dedicated to sharing his culture.

He certainly put everything on a new level yesterday though, when he informed us that only people with the best Karma get to be born in India!

When he heard this, Eric--a man of few words--only made the comment (with one raised eyebrow and the tiniest smile at the corners of his mouth), "I knew there was a reason I accumulated bad Karma in my previous life."

Halloween

2008-11-23T07:36:00.000-08:00

Wearing costumes and collecting candy is a fun and traditional part of Halloween, and carving pumpkins is another. This holiday started originally in Europe when people wanted to frighten evil spirits away by making things that would scare them. I'm not sure how effective that was, but one remant of this old idea is carving pumpkins with scary faces. Of course, nobody now is

frightened of them, and it's just fun. Because of Diwali, we didn't carve pumpkins until the day after Halloween, but it was still fun.

Yosef joined us too, so we had three lovely pumpkins carved, and six strange faces!

My oldest daughter, an art teacher, had fun with two pumpkins.

Last year, Kenan, Rashed, and Hussein had fun with pumpkins too.

And the year before that, we also had an interesting set of pumpkins.

Although, they didn't look REALLY scary until about three weeks later.

Combining holidays

2008-11-16T07:42:00.000-08:00

On October 28, we had a small family Diwali celebration. Diwali seems to last a long time. With the exception of Christmas, most of our holidays go very quickly, and Indians living in America have to make adjustments to how they celebrate. Diwali is much shorter here, and has to be fit into whatever is happening in our culture. We enjoyed the small Rangoli that Nikunj made at our house, and ate a few Indian sweets after dinner (it isn't easy figuring out what ingredients are needed, since even when I have English names for them, the names are still different from American/west coast names and I'm not sure what the ingredient is. If we can figure that out, THEN we have to find the ingredients--also a challenge sometimes).
October 31 (our Hallowe'en Day) was a long day for Nikunj. With so many differences in Diwali already, he decided to make a few more--he wanted to give presentations about India to his classmates for this occassion. For various reasons, he couldn't do it on October 28 and did so on October 31 instead. He got up very early to finish his preparations, because each class needed a different presentation (Guitar class got a music presentation, American Literature got an Indian Literature presentation, etc). Nikunj worked hard to make sure each presenation was what he thought it should be. Four or five of his six classes allowed him to do this--the sixth class had a test. When school was over, he came to my workplace (very close to his school), and I took him home, and then to the Indian restaurant (the "India Palace").

A big Diwali party was planned and the owners of the restaurant asked Nikunj if he would make a large rangoli on the floor near the entrance to their restaurant. There were not a lot of colors available (our small 200,000 people community doesn't have a large enough Indian population to supply such an unusual item, although the restaurant owners have a (very) small grocery store with a few hard-t0-find foods available). With so few colors available, even with the addition of some of the colors we made at home, he could only make a simple rangoli several hours before the party was to start. When he was finished, Nikunj went to a Halloween party he had been invited to by some classmates.

At the party, Nikunj went "trick-or-treating". When I was young, this was something only young children did, going from house to house and requesting candies from the neighbors. We would get large bags full of candies and spend the next month sugar sick. It was wonderful. But teenagers didn't do this (or I was too young to notice them). But the teenagers now seem to enjoy dressing in costumes and going from door to door too, and their costumes are quite creative. (Dressing in costumes seems to be fun for everybody--my husband wore a traditional Kyrgyz coat and hat to his work, and I wore the clothes Nikunj gave me to my job--other employees wore more humorous costumes). Since Nikunj had been asked to perform some of his classical dancing at the India Palace, his traditional dance clothes were also his Hallowe'en costume. I'm not sure what everybody else was supposed to be, except one was a cartoon character, there was a "cereal killer", some kind of butterfly (I think), and Yosef (one of my other students) came as a farmer. They had a fun time and it wasn't until 9 pm that Nikunj called and was ready to return to the India Palace for their celebration.

The food was wonderful and we enjoyed the different flavors and combinations very much. However, the music was VERY loud and unfamiliar to us so it was harder to appreciate, and my husband and HaHa were ready to go home soon. Nikunj had not yet danced, so I came back after taking them home. But it had been too long a day. Nikunj was exhausted and just wanted to go home, so after apologizing to our hosts, we left. I think Nikunj was asleep before his head hit the pillow!

Diwali

2008-10-30T14:28:00.000-07:00

Yesterday, after figuring out what Nikunj needed, I used food coloring to color some sand, and Nikunj made a "rangoli", a sand drawing, as part of the Diwali/New Years celebration he was sharing with us. Of course, our sand was too coarse, and the colors not as bright, but Nikunj made a nice rangoli, though not as large or elaborate as the one pictured. We are learning a lot about Hinduism this year. Nikunj is a dedicated teacher. It looks like we will be celebrating New Year's at least three times in the coming months (Indian/Hindu (yesterday), American (Jan. 1), and Chinese (February) versions, and depending on continued contact with the mosque, the Muslim New year, probably sometime in November). The Hindu New Year yesterday followed Diwali the day previously-Diwali being the last day of the year, also known as the festival of lights, and commemorating the victory of light over darkness in a battle long ago. I have been told that Nikunj's home province of Gujarat is especially known for all the dancing they do, but I'm getting the impression that dancing is a big deal all over India, and that when they have a festival they REALLY celebrate. I've felt bad that despite Nikunj's efforts, there's not much of a celebration over here compared to what he's used to, and I feel like we've missed out. But at the same time, it is hard to do the extra stuff which a celebration demands when our jobs and other activities here are set up to continue as usual. We are getting more of an idea at the Indian Cultural Center, but still, this is America, not India. We tried making some of the food they eat, but as usual, we don't have exactly the right ingredients, or exactly the right taste in the vegetables and other foods. I suspect there is also a certain amount of me just not being able to cook like Nikunj's mother (or Hussein's, or Azamat's, or Zixu's....). This would probably be a problem even if I were a good cook! But vegetarian cooking is not so bad--I've learned a few recipes we all like.

Nikunj likes to use celebrations or other little things as springboards to start conversations about his culture, his country, and his faith. We've had a number of interesting conversations. Karma is such a foreign concept for us. But as he has explained in various ways how it works, I begin to see how this belief can be a help and inspiration in life to believers. Everything we do will result in us receiving the same back again, good or bad, kind or selfish, small or great. EVERYTHING that happens to us is the result of our previous actions, whether in this life or a previous life. So if something horrible happens, we can know it's because we deserve it--or as Nikunj puts it, because that's what we have to "pay". Presumably if something good happens, we deserve that too. And everything we do now sets us up for our next life. In any case, if you think about it the right way, it makes hardship easier to bear. It's very different from the idea we have here that things happen just because the world is set up that way, and because other people's choices affect us, and to give us opportunities to grow and learn, and that everything will made right in heaven or hell (depending on our choices). It was a very interesting conversation--but I think I liked the ending best--we were trying to decide if Nikunj's being in our home was because he is paying for past crimes, or because we are.

Thank you very much!

2008-10-07T08:09:00.000-07:00

I have been hearing and reading about how important it is to say please and thank you, and how strongly it is emphasized in various orientations that exchange students attend before arriving in their host families.

Imagine my surprise when Nikunj informed us that, in fact, saying please, thank you, or sorry within the family is considered insulting. The reasoning is that one should be so close and warm in a family that such formality is not necessary--that everyone knows you are grateful or sorry or whatever without it needing to be said--that these feelings show in your actions. That's a really strange idea in some ways, because what we have always learned is that we should treat our family better than we treat other people, and since we are always polite to other people we should be polite in our families too.

On the other hand, I know that when I am uncomfortable with people, or don't know them very well, I am extremely polite. Politeness and formality can create distance between people. I save jokes and personal remarks for people I am close to. So, in a way, I do understand what Nikunj is saying. But it is still a very strange concept for me.

The result is that when I say thank you to Nikunj for doing something for me, he looks at me sternly and asks why I am insulting him. AND, when he says thank you, because he is trying to fit into our family and society, I ask HIM why he is insulting me. We enjoy the joke, but in the end, it is hard to decide whether to say thank you or not! Nikunj is very good at example though--we know very clearly by his smiles and actions that he is grateful and values his host family. We appreciate him!

Awesome people

2008-09-14T07:57:00.000-07:00

Although the purpose of this blog is mostly to show what life with an exchange student is like from the host family (specifically, our family) point of view, I want to mention some of the other host families I meet in the process of finding families for my group of students.

The first family I "found" is now hosting Rap. Actually Hussein found them and told me about them. Surprisingly, I already know them as they attend my church, although I don't know them very well. They have been steady and eager to host and Rap tells me how happy he is with them and how much he likes being included in the family activities--including chores. This family is pretty organized and does a lot of things together, and are always friendly.

The second family I found is now hosting Amelia. They received an e-mail, decided in five minutes they wanted to host and never looked back. When I visited their home, as soon as I walked in the door, one of their little daughters gave me a hug, and they had me join them for dinner while they filled out application forms--I feel good every time I meet any of them! Both of the parents are teachers at the high school. Amelia seems totally comfortable there.

The third family is a welcoming family only since they live too far from the high school and only have one car, but they have totally enjoyed Abdullah. They own their own businesses so they keep pretty busy. The mom makes stained glass windows and cooks only vegetarian food (which tastes MUCH better than my vegetarian food, but I'm still learning). They are starting to feel a little stressed because I still haven't found a permanent family for Abdullah, but are so friendly and gracious and patient, and will miss him a lot when he moves. Abdullah has only good things to say about them.

The fourth family lives in another community, a small town that a lot of students have laughed about, but the more I've been in that little town, the more I like it--the people are very close and friendly. This family is hosting Nawaz, who was originally supposed to go somewhere in the Eastern United States but it didn't work out. They are alpaca farmers. They only knew about Nawaz for two days and got ready for him that quickly. Nawaz calls them awesome and he is happy to be there.

The fifth family I only met last Thursday. They are hosting Yosef who was in a family over in Eastern United States, but it didn't work out. They are excited to have the opportunity to host him, and bought all new bedroom furniture to make a nice room for Yosef, who arrived on Friday. Yosef seems to feel welcome. They are also alpaca farmers and live in the same community as Nawaz. I feel privileged to know these friendly and caring people as well.

My sixth student, Nikunj, lives with us, of course.

These short paragraphs don't really do a very good job of describing these generous and interesting people. Almost all of them are committed Christians, and all of them want to give their student a happy year--they drive them to activities and the mosque, worry that they will find friends, respect their religion, are interested in their student's cultures, and try to cook foods that their students will enjoy. Of course, I will be watchful for problems, but I have a very good group of students, and an equally good group of families so I think this will be a happy and successful year for everybody. I am delighted to know the students, and after all the stress and anxiety of searching for host families, I am delighted to know their American families also.

My new suffering experience....

2008-09-11T20:46:00.000-07:00

Received an e-mail from Hussein a few days ago wishing me well in my new suffering experience. He doesn't write much, but he's good at choosing his words! The experience is going reasonably well at this point:

Nikunj seems to have gotten comfortable very quickly in our home. I usually know when a student is comfortable by when they stop trying to behave perfectly. Nikunj's moment came only 2 days after his arrival. We went canoeing at the park on the river. We learned very quickly that Nikunj has no idea how to balance in a boat. That's ok. He will learn. However, he managed to tip both of us out of the canoe into the river, only a minute after launching, and when he came up for air he was LAUGHING! I think he's comfortable. The next day, Dad took him canoe sailing, and the same thing happened. But we had the last laugh, since Nikunj thought the water was extremely cold.

Eric has a six week break from college, so he is spending some time making movies again. He has long been planning to be a director so he practices whenever he can. THIS time he is making a zombie movie. Of all the things Nikunj might have expected to do in America, I bet being in a zombie movie wasn't anywhere on his list! Eric is trying some new techniques so it may take a while for it to show up on YouTube. But in the meantime there's fake blood all over the house and yard, and bits of styrofoam from smashed artifical walls. What a mess. Although Eric tries to clean up, he doesn't quite get it all. More suffering for me.

Food. It's very important. I've had three years now where one person liked his food very spicy, and another did not. I thought it would be wonderful if everybody in the house liked the same thing. I finally got my wish. India and China (Zixu is with us this year again), both eat pretty spicy food, and neither eats pork. But, sadly, Nikunj is Hindu, and doesn't eat ANY other meat either, nor eggs. All in all, the spicy problem is easier to handle. At least we are eating healthier food!

We went camping. We try to go every year, although our daughter's wedding stopped us last year. But we made it this year. It is so beautiful up near Mount Rainier, so different from the dry and hot area where we live. Many beautiful places to hike.

We put up our tents and started the fire (with wet wood--it only took one and half hours). We learned that vegetarian hot dogs taste horrible. Fortunately we had lots of other food with us.

Of course, there was a river beside the campground, and we went canoing -- with Nikunj. The river has rocky areas in it, and sometimes cliff walls at the sides, but it is not a very dangerous river in the fall. For us it's still exciting and VERY spectacular scenery. Of course, the canoe tipped over. Probably we can't blame Nikunj this time--he was sitting in the middle, and the current was pretty fast when we hit the rock wall at the end of a stretch of rapids. Nikunj had never even imagined anything as cold as the water in this river. It's meltwater from glaciers on Mount Rainier. Fortunately, the water wasn't very deep and after Nikunj recovered from the shock, he was able to help us get the canoe to shore, empty the water out, and continue our journey. NEXT time we will remember to tie our glasses securely to our heads. We found the paddles and shoes that floated away, but all of us lost our glasses. Nikunj wanted to do it again! The road leading to our destination had been closed because of damage during the spring runoff (the river is not so safe when all the snow starts melting), and we had to carry the canoe almost 1 km to the car. Once was enough!

Nikunj, we are happy to report, is learning. When we got home, we went canoeing again the following weekend, and Nikunj did not tip the canoe over even once! He took it safely back to the car all by himself! Good job!!!

Well, so far, the year is starting out well. I think it will be interesting.

A new year starts

2008-08-26T07:08:00.000-07:00

After a stressful few weeks in which I have been searching for families to host my group of exchange students, it was with great relief and gratitude that not only has God found some super families for my original three assigned students, but that he has also provided families for two additional students that had not been successfully placed in their originally assigned areas (one family had only two days' preparation before their student arrived!). I was praying a lot for help finding them, and I suspect that the students were as well. I am delighted that God is blessing us all--no matter which religion--and since I am assigned to work with students from countries with significant Muslim populations (although the students are not all Muslim), religion is an issue I cannot ignore.

Arrival date was August 13. My group of students all arrive at the same time, so I had four excited families waiting at our tiny local airport. I am so impressed with the courage of the students in facing a new family and a new country all at the same time, and it was wonderful to see the happy smiles as the students and families finally met each other. It seemed like all my efforts were rewarded on this happy day.

It happens that we are hosting one of my group of students as well. It never seems right, when a new student arrives, that they are "replacing" our old students. But then as we get to know the new student, we realize that they aren't replacing anyone--they are so different and unique, and we do not forget the old ones.

Nikunj, the student who would be living with us, was not with the group that arrived. He had missed his plane. The good thing about this was that it enabled me to see all the other happy meetings, and we were able to arrange car schedules better as two of our family members had final exams to take at college on this day. It also meant that I had to find Nikunj's luggage, which had arrived correctly, and take it to the car by myself. Fortunately, he only had one suitcase. We've teased him a few times about missing that plane, but he had been following instructions back in Washington DC and the timing was bad. While he was waiting for his replacement flight, he made himself useful at the airport in Washington DC, helping other students catch their planes. Our organization had notified me early in the day that Nikunj would be arriving later than expected, and it was good when Nikunj arrived, 7 hours late, but finally where he was supposed to be. To celebrate his arrival, we went to a restaurant and ate and got to know him a bit. Already we have learned that in India people eat with their hands (except for soup), so using a knife and fork, which is normal for us, is a cultural experience for him.

After three years of learning about Islam, this year we are going to learn about Hindu, since Nikunj is from India. Although he has had years of lessons in traditional Indian singing, he additionally wanted to be able to show some classical dancing and prepared for months before coming so he could perform them for us. He does an impressive job. He is pretty dedicated to sharing his culture and religion with us, so it will be an interesting year.

I was a little annoyed.....

2008-08-17T21:14:00.000-07:00

Not only am I a host mom, but I am also a coordinator, and I work hard (by God's grace) to find good host families for my students. So, a few weeks ago I heard of a host family that changed their mind about hosting and I was annoyed. Of course I don't know everything, but part of the problem was the family was worried about having a Muslim in their home. I don't understand. I thought about all the Muslims I have met in the past 2-3 years. I have eaten with them. Seen tears running down the face of one watching a memorial video of a terrorist attack on an elementary school in which her 6 year old cousin died. I've been with them when they prayed. Watched them play soccer. Listened to planning meetings, and lots of other stuff. So I want to report all the suspicious and scary things I have seen them doing....

Making secret weapons--explosives, I think.

Indoctrinating the youth.

Spying on our power grid.

Target practice.

Developing new types of body armour.

Trying to blend inconspicuously with the natives so they can infiltrate our society. No one will ever know they are from the Middle East.

Leadership training.

These guys seem to be the ringleaders--code names: Larry, Curly, and Moe. (Check out YouTube, "the Three Stooges" if you want further information about this sinister group.)

All of this was so disturbing that I found host families for two additional Muslim students.

Time to think

2008-07-11T16:08:00.000-07:00

What a silent week it's been. It will take time to adjust to a calm and quiet house. Azamat told me once that the world is a small place, but right now Egypt seems very far away indeed. Actually, all the countries of my students seem far away, especially as their lives get busy and communication is limited--even with instant messaging, webcams, and e-mails there just doesn't seem to be enough time--or not the right time.

So it was a joy to connect with Azamat this past week. Here we are used to internet twenty four hours a day, in our homes, but apparently it isn't like that everywhere in the world. Or at least, not for everyone. But for once Azamat was on messenger and we were able to chat, and, knowing he was available, we phoned. How wonderful to hear his voice again!

It is so easy to put people in categories, but the longer I know people the more obvious it is that people defy categories. I really don't know what the "average" Kyrgyz is like, but I think if there is such a creature, it's not Azamat.

He has a keen intelligence, used often to notice inconsistencies and humor in everyday life. For example, his description of my driving to an audience of 10-15 exchange students and their host families (40+ people) during the Christmas Party included showing them exactly how I stuck my head out of the car window so I could see to drive because the window was covered with too much ice and snow. I only did that once!!!! For a very short distance!! And cleaned it before I got to any busy streets!! What really hurt is when the only two women there who knew me told me afterwards that they could imagine me doing that. In one phone conversation he confessed to slipping on the ice and getting in a car accident when he was allowed to drive after he returned to Kyrgyzstan. I feel better now.

Actually, honesty is a strong characteristic with Azamat. This is normally considered a good thing, but he isn't very worried about expressing his thoughts when they are negative either and made some very pointed comments that I really didn't want to hear--I already know I'm not a great cook. The nice thing though, is that he is equally frank and honest about good things. He gave me some thoughtful and sincere compliments that were worth the criticisms, and that I still treasure, the more because I know he wouldn't have said them unless he meant them.

He has a pretty good memory too. This helps a lot in school, and is useful in many situations. Then there's the down side. Once, after a long drive on a sunny day I arrived home about half an hour after it got dark. I was welcomed home gladly, but Azamat looked at me funny, and finally asked whether I had been wearing those sunglasses while driving. I had been wearing them because the sun was so bright, and hadn't realized I was still wearing them when the sun set (I could see fine!) Until we went to bed, and all the next day, Azamat couldn't resist looking at me significantly, and emphasizing, ever so slightly, the words "dark", "night", "black" and any other reference he could make to this incident. Although it reduced, a week later he was still at it, and even a month or two later he was liable to put on his sunglasses and say with a grin, "Ready to drive". His memory didn't have to be THAT good.

Despite his outspokeness, Azamat is very polite. Perhaps the most vivid example was when he got his last haircut in America. Being very thrifty, he usually asked me to cut his hair. This was actually quite an ordeal for me, because as soon as I cut the first 2 mm off, he would yelp in outrage, "what are you doing!!?" and as the cut progressed he was very vocal about what was wrong with it. I don't know why (at his request) I cut it a second time! But he had enough, and for the third time he went to a professional. I warned him (based on experience) that a professional might not give him a cut he liked either. So off we drove, to the least expensive barber we could find. He sat quietly while the woman gave him a very nice haircut, definately worth the $12. BUT, she asked him how he liked it when she was finished, and Azamat made the mistake of pointing out that it was still a little bit (very little bit) too long on one side. I knew what he was saying, but she didn't quite understand and thought he wanted everything shorter. So she took out her buzzers and took his hair down to about 3-4 mm. I watched his eyebrows raise in alarm, but he said nothing (it was too late). When she was done, he said it was very nice and silently paid for the cut. When we got outside, he glared at me--"Don't say a word!!!" he said. So I didn't. But I've never forgotten how polite he was to the barber.

Azamat's phone call brought back so many good memories--sitting at the table doing homework, laughing about (not very funny) jokes, being generous to a fault with his money and possesions, showing me how to cook some Kyrgyz foods, his horrible singing (there were some duets with Kuba who lived next door that were particularly memorable), his worse guitar playing, trying to hide his emotion after talking with his little sister or mother on the phone, negotiations about chores....lots of memories. Now he's studying international law in Kyrgyzstan. I think he's going to be an awesome lawyer. I look forward to seeing him again in the future.

Good-bye

2008-07-07T00:06:00.000-07:00

The day I have been dreading all year finally came. The last story was told, the last meal was eaten, the suitcases were packed, and weighed, and repacked, and reweighed, and at 6 am (with only two hours of sleep on my part), Hussein and the others left to go home. Their REAL homes, not my house. Even though I would be following them shortly to their end-of-stay orientation in Washington DC (with almost 400 other YES students), they were gone. After a month of going to the airport to say good bye to other students (at least 8 trips to the airport!), this was the final time. Probably that's a good thing, because we always had to be at the airport by 4:30 am!!!

Once I arrived in DC, at 2 am, extremely tired, I realized I had made a mistake. I had volunteered to help because I knew it would be a neat opportunity to work with a whole bunch of students, and I hoped to delay the final good bye a little longer. But I barely saw them. My four students were so busy in DC that I only saw them occasionally in the distance, except Rashed. I was assigned to work with the Saudi kids. Rashed, poor guy, couldn't get rid of me. (Photo is of the YES kids that were also PAX students -- PAX being one of several organizations that supervised the kids while in America, and the organization which I work with).

It was interesting to go to the State Department and meet important people in the government, and to go to the Saudi Embassy again. Ten years ago when we first hosted Mitsuko from Japan, I would never have dreamed that exchange students would one day lead me to the KSA Embassy in Washington DC! I don't know why, but this is one of the high points in my life that I will never forget. There were also a number of workshops in the hotel, and lots of food.

One of the purposes of the orientation was to help the students reintegrate into their countries, and to strengthen their friendships with other YES students from their countries. Whatever else may have resulted from this orientation, the kids surely bonded with each other. Part of the second day's activities was for the students to prepare a cultural presentation to share with the other students. I watched the Saudi's try to figure out what they wanted to do. My goodness! The spoke mostly in Arabic so I couldn't understand anything, but it did seem like it took them a long, long (long) time to come to agreement. I gave up "helping" and went to bed (only two hours sleep in the previous 48 hours), leaving the other group leader to keep an eye on them. I was so impressed with what they came up with. One of the Saudi boys has a marvelous voice and he sang, I think, a traditional song, then there was some dancing (I really couldn't tell if it was supposed to be traditional or modern), a bit of comedy, and some break dancing. The Egyptians (pictured) first did a traditional dance --Hussein's contribution being wild waving of the Egyptian flag, and then Egyptian rap with some dancing of doubtful authenticity by a bunch of the guys wearing traditional clothing in the background. The Indonesians (pictured), Philippinos, Malaysians, Indians, and Ghanians had wonderful costumes and traditional dancing. There was more. The energy in the room was overwhelming. These kids deserved to celebrate. They had survived a year in a foreign culture, language, family, and school, in different ways and with varying degrees of success, but they did it. Their courage, perseverance, and intelligence is amazing. It is a privilege to be associated with them!!

I have to say too, that even though I have never believed all the unkind things I hear in the media, I hadn't really met that many Saudis. Rashed is the soul of courtesy and kindness (with a hidden streak of mischief that has caused me to ask him why his older brothers have left him alive!) and I am always glad to see him, but he is only one and may not be typical. Overall, Saudis were a big unknown and therefore a little bit scary to me. But the two days with them have erased my fears forever. They were awesome. Being short on sleep, I was a bit emotional at times, knowing it was time to say good-bye, and they comforted me, hugged me, and gave me advice--so very kind. They also have a great sense of humor. There were two Faisels, four Mohammeds, two Hasans, and a bunch of other names, only a few of which I was able to remember in two very busy days. In any case, the last night I showed one of the Faisels a really interesting science experiment (involving a cup full of water), which so intrigued him (he has a VERY big smile) that I'm sure he spend the rest of the night showing it to as many other students as possible--they were good sports when the water spilled! The group was funny, enthusiastic, smart, and rather independent. The one thing they were not was punctual--they were so UNpunctual, even for meals, that I begin to doubt whether they have clocks in Saudi Arabia. But otherwise, what a great bunch of kids! I will always be glad I got to know them.

Stories

2008-06-28T12:18:00.001-07:00

One of the kindest, most cheerful and conscientious people I know is Aditi. She is my student from India. If anyone could be described as having a pure heart, I would describe Aditi so. The problem with this is that since Aditi is so careful to be truthful, she tends to believe other people also tell the truth most of the time. The Three Stooges have dedicated this year to teaching her otherwise. They have told her the most outrageous things and laughed at her when she believed them. She eventually learned to check in my direction for the expression on my face before believing them. But I knew she had made real progress when she was laughing almost as hard as I was about the story of how Hussein's parents met: Hussein's father was an engineer planning the construction of the pyramids. Hussein's mother was one of the builders. One day Hussein's father was walking along the construction site when he saw one of the stones about to fall onto a pretty girl. He quickly ran and with all his strength stopped the rock, and saved her life. It was the beginning of a beautiful love story....

All of us are fascinated by the lives of people we know. Especially if those lives have obvious differences from our own. That is one of the fascinations of knowing exchange students. And exchange students can tell lots of stories. They usually have many opportunities to talk about their homes and cultures, plus formal opportunities to give presentations. Technology being what it is, a lot of the students now give power point presentations. It is so amazing what is possible with technology. (Picture is when all four of my students gave presentations at the Mosque). But stories are the best. Personal stories, pictures of their homes, their schools, their roads. Stories that show what their lives in their countries are really like--does Hussein REALLY take a camel to school (with BMW tatooed on it's forehead)? The pyramids are awesome, or the library of Alexandria, but what makes our students countries seem real is a picture of the pyramids looming behind the roads and buildings of modern Giza on the way to Hussein's school, or Zixu's bedroom with a view of his garden through the window--pictures that show the daily life of the students. And to this day, I would like to know the true story of how Hussein's parents met.