The last night of home-stays, by Sarah Schreiber

2/4/09

Tonight is the last night of my home-stay. It’s been great so far, minus going to school with my host-sister, Alexia. Being here I feel like I have a real family, living with both parents and a few sisters instead of divorced parents and two brothers that don’t live at home. The first night at this home-stay I was half asleep and my “mom” come in my room and made sure my blanket was covering me, just that one thing made me feel accepted in their home.
I’ve been trying hard to communicate with my family but it’s pretty difficult, although I feel like I’m learning a lot. My “sister”, Dulce, is too young to understand that I just don’t understand and speak Spanish and she just repeats everything and gives me a look like I’m crazy for not understanding. I can write with my other “sisters”, Alexia and Yolanda though and have a decent conversation with them. My “dad” is pretty funny with communicating, he just yells everything (but always with a smile on his face) hoping that speaking louder will make me understand. On the first my he came into my room with a glass of milk and yelled, “MILK!?”.
I met a couple people around my age that spoke English, Alma and Rigo. I’m so glad I got to meet them and they both made me feel more welcome into the community. Rigo even gave me a really nice picture of a video game character to take home.
I also went to school with Alexia, she’s 11 so she’s in 5th or 6th grade, and it was such a terrible experience. I walked through the school yard with her and I felt every pair of young eyes watch me, the American girl with bleach blonde hair and 9 piercings, all of them wondering what I was doing there. We eventually made it to the classroom and sat down at desks I could hardly fit in, they seemed so small. The teacher was barely even there for a class, I’d almost not consider him a teacher because he didn’t do anything. He was there in the classroom for a total of maybe 45 minutes. He would be there for a little while and then leave, but every time he left, a riot would break out between around 30 of the students, I couldn’t believe what I was seeing. I would describe it was a Fight Club for 10 year olds. Another time the teacher left every single kid piled in a circle around me to just stare at me and touch my hair and piercings. One little girl, Kayla, spoke English and said that they wanted to see my ear, I showed them, and they all gasped at the long metal bar that went through the top of my left ear. Things might have been worse in the classroom next to me though. The teacher left, and like my class, the kids started fighting and some kid got pushed through a window and his hand went through it and cut his wrist pretty back. That school was definitely an experience I won’t forget.
We also just had a party for everyone on their last night, all of the students and their families came to it and had a great time. There was a piñata, lots of food, music, poetry and lots of thank you’s to everyone for such a great experience with home-stays.