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2/15/01 11:30AM Hotel de la Soledad, Morelia, Michoacan, Mexico

We just had a meeting with Erika at the hotel. We are having some problems. Sometimes when the kids are taken on tours they are not paying attention. During recess our kids are clustering together in an American ghetto, ignoring their host families' children. Several kids are having flu symptoms. They all seem to be better off emotionally however.

Looking at it from the kid's viewpoint, they are having difficulty expressing themselves and understanding their hosts' lectures and such. Talking all day in pidgin Spanish about simple subjects doesn't fulfill the need to talk. And they have much to talk about. They need to discuss their experiences with each other so they can digest it all. I think that in the future the host school should be aware of this need and accommodate it by providing a daily 15-20 minutes of time for all the exchange students to gather and just talk to each other, perhaps in a room somewhere. Perhaps then they wouldn't cluster together at recess.

We are dealing with 6th graders here. I know they are spoiled compared to the host children. The host children in turn are spoiled compared to kids in Bangladesh working at tennis shoe factories. Our kids are who they are and we can't realistically expect them to change suddenly. Many of them are leaving home for the first time to stay with people they don't know in a world turned upside-down. I admire the courage they have shown so far and don't think I would have done any better when I was their age. We don't want to accommodate them to the point where they are not exposed to the culture but perhaps we need to take some steps to make this a little easier for them. I think of them as exchange students in training. When they are older they can go to other countries for much longer time with less support. Oh well, that's my opinion. As Ronald Reagan once said, "I paid for this microphone."

My god, now I'm quoting Reagan. I'd better go. More to follow.

--Bill Tomkovic