Project Amigo Visitors Part II

Elliot, Audrey, Cande, Christian and Alondra helping us set up flags on the morning of July 24th.














Part of the toilet paper job that we did on the Cottles' house with the kids from Project Amigo.














Alondra and Javier trying to show Meli how to jump on the trampoline.



















The "short cut" I took in the van.....














Cristobal, Jorge, Alondra, Pati, Elliot, Mari, Javier, and Jeff painting at Sister Ward's house.


July 19th and 20th

Hi all!

Those ten days that Bruce gave me off made me lazy and I got out of the habit of writing my daily report for you! But now I have a second to breathe....

Saturday morning we picked the kids up from Bruce's house in Centerville. James had to work, and Lagoon is no fun with someone Cecily's age, so we left them home. An acquaintance of Bruce's gave him 11 free passes, so all of the kids plus Audrey and Elliot had unlimited access to the rides (worth about $440 dollars!) The entrance of Lagoon is great, because the only ride you can see really well while you're going in is the rickety old white roller coaster that makes a lot of noise and on which many many people are screaming- it ups the level of adrenaline and fear, I think!

We first took a ride on the ski lift so that the kids could get an idea of the layout of the park. Then they ended up splitting up into two groups- really brave and ambitious, and enthusiastic yet cautious. The first group was Elliot, Cande, Christian and Javier. They went right for the Wild Mouse- a jerky little roller coaster. The rest of the group went to the other end of the park to the tilt-a-wheel. I took pictures of the first group while they went on the Wild Mouse, and the Cliff Hanger- which is like a huge pendulum where sometimes the seats stay upright while the pendulum swings, and sometimes they fix themselves and so as the pendulum swings, you end up upside down. Plus, fountains of water periodically squirt, and if you happen to be going over them when they squirt, and even better, if you're fixed and looking straight into the fountain, there is a potential for much wetness. The boys got pretty wet. Then they went to the Colossus. It's the big roller coaster with an enormous first drop and two loops. When the ride finally ended, the four of their could hardly contain themselves, they loved it so much. They went on from there and I went to see if I could find the other group. They'd gone on the huge Ferris wheel, and had done the bumper cars. Then I sat in the shade and held everyone's bags and read a good chunk of _Middlemarch_! At about 2, they went into Lagoon-A-Beach and went down the waterslides. Meli didn't want to go because her scraped knee was still tender, so Mari and Cristobal stayed in the park wit her. I've never seen Lagoon-A-Beach so crowded- it was really hot! But I think the kids had fun. They kept riding rides until about 7, at which time everyone but Elliot and Cande were spent. We went to pick up the suitcases at Bruce's, but he and Karen had a party to go to and weren't there- everyone was disappointed. We ended up getting to Logan at about 10. I tried to take Javier and Cristobal home and the only way they knew to get to their house was through a shortcut. So we started up the shortcut in the 12 passenger Dodge van, and it wasn't a shortcut as much as it was just plain old off-roading. There were trees scraping us, and washboards, and steep hills- I'm surprised we didn't lose some shocks, the oil pan, the luggage rack, and my sanity. We got up to the house and their host mom was surprised we were home- she'd thought they wouldn't come back until the next night, and had a house full of family, so they came with us to drop off Marissa. But as we headed to her house, the van started to move funny, and smell funny. Christian and I looked at each other and decided we'd better pull over. We called James and he came and got us in the truck. Marissa's host dad came and picked her up, and the rest of them had to ride in the back of the truck back to Logan.

The next morning, Alondra, Jorge, Javier and Cristobal went with our family to our LDS ward. Sacrament Meeting was first, and we all sat together as a family and listened to some talks and some music. The next two hours we all split up, and Alondra was the only one game enough to stay. Actually, Cande's family goes to the same ward as we do, so he and his host brother and Audrey and Alondra were all in the same Sunday School class. Audrey said they did really well, but some of the boys in her class were really rowdy. Then Alondra went with Audrey to the class for the young women, where the girls, on the contrary, behaved themselves perfectly.:)

We had a typical rolls/roast chicken/mashed potatoes/green beans American Sunday dinner. The only thing we forgot was the Jello salad. :( Then we had some neighbors come and visit and we had to go to a little awards thingy for Elliot, but besides that, we all just slept and rested. Cristobal and Javier's host dad came and picked them up that evening.

Yesterday, we met Juan Carlos Vasquez at the Space Dynamics Lab at Utah State University. Juan Carlos is from Mexico City. He studied at the UNAM there, and after playing semi-pro soccer for a while, got a soccer scholarship to come to one of the universities up here. He married a girl from here, and decided to stay , and so he got a masters degree here at Utah State and now works with the Disability Resource Center. At the SDL, they watched a NASA video (oh, and they all had to get security clearance and leave cell phones and cameras behind, in case they share sensitive material with Mexico's space program....), toured the lab where they build parts of satellites and rockets, and got to see some stuff that's been up to space and back.

Then they went to the anthropology museum and learned about some of the Utah Indian artifacts that they had there. A guy in town let us buy them each a USU shirt at his cost, which was so nice. But I don't think they're cute and tight enough for any of the girls....:) They said they were going to share with brothers and sisters. They got to eat lunch at the Marketplace, which is one of those places where you pay a set amount as you enter, and then you'd free to wander around picking up this and that. The president of the Latino Student Union, Gerardo, also spent the morning with them. Then they toured the Aggie cheese plant, and then went to see Juan Carlos' department, where they do studies in the way that disabilities can hinder those who want to study, and how they can do things to help students to continue to study. They are very cutting edge- JC said that they are the second highest in research dollars after the SDL. Things that they study end up having effects all over the world. JC and Jorge talked for a while because they have a lot of out-of-date wheelchairs and hearing aids- they were going to see if they could work out a way to get them down to Colima. Then JC took them to a student lounge with foosball tables and pingpong tables and music and couches and they just hung out and relaxed. Then JC ended by giving them a really great speech about how his cousins in Mexico think that life is easy for him now that he's here in the US, but that the only thing that has made the life he has now possible has been hard work and education. He really emphasized that, and he also introduced them to two of his sons, JC jr and Julian, and told them that even if hard work and education hadn't measurably improved his standard of living, it would be more than worth it because now he has so much more that he can offer to his kids. He did a great job- he's a great guy. Jorge is going to spend this week with him and his family.

And this morning the kids are with Jeff Larsen, painting a shed for a widow that Jeff knows. I'll report in again tonight or tomorrow!



Jenny

Tuesday the 22nd

Today, Jeff Larsen, who is the outgoing Logan Rotary Club president, and who is hosting Pati, had a service project planned for us. He knew of an elderly widow named Delene Ward who desperately needed her shed and her fence painted. So the kids met here and changed into paint clothes and covered their shoes with old socks. They got right to work when they got there. Elliot went with them. Mrs. Ward spent time out working with the kids and said that she especially enjoyed getting to know Christian, whose English is just really getting good. They spent about four hours at her house, and ended up being able to paint the whole fence- Jeff had thought that they might only get about a third of it done. Mrs. Ward then cut them up some cantaloupe, and they called me to pick them up.

The local KFC provided lunch for them and we went and ate it at a nice shady park. The cole slaw was a hit, the potato salad was not. Jeff made Cande offer a blessing on the food and he did a really good job!

Then we headed over to the Multicultural Center. I had to leave because I had to pick up Cecily, but it sounded to me like they had a really good chat with Leo about discrimination against Latinos here in the US, and also about the laws surrounding immigration. He pointed out that by returning to Mexico this time, as they had promised when they had their visa interviews, they were going to be building a good reputation with the US government for themselves and also for Project Amigo.

Then I had to run Elliot to a soccer game and go teach a class and James was at work, so the rest of the kids eventually found their ways home. Pati and Meli have gotten brave and have been walking home together. It's about half a mile to Pati's and a mile to Meli's house.

Cande had some excitement at his house. The family dog, Bubba, who is a huge mastiff that the family has had for 8 or 9 years, is going through liver failure and the family's saying good bye to him, getting ready to have to put him to sleep. Everyone in the family has been very weepy, and his host mom, Joni, asked me to explain to him that for them, Bubba's a member of the family, and that's why they're so sad.

Tomorrow I've made plans for everyone to go do some job shadowing at places where they do work that they're interested in.

Jenny

Wednesday July 23

Late Tuesday night, Christian's host mom called and asked if they could keep him a little longer yesterday morning. I had set up appointments for everyone to do a little job shadowing in the areas that they thought of studying. But Cammy said that since her family would be leaving for a family reunion that afternoon, that Wednesday morning would be their farewell to Christian and they wanted to have a good-bye breakfast. Since I was out running people around, I wasn't home when she did drop Christian off, but I had this message on my phone, "Hi, Jenny, this is Cammy, it's 11:15 and I just dropped Christian off. Thanks for letting us have him this morning....(long pause, then she started talking again with her voice choked with emotion) Thanks so much for letting him stay with us this month....(another long pause) I can't talk now, I'm too emotional, thanks, I'll talk to you later..." Christian said that he had woken up determined not to cry when saying goodbye to his family, but he said when everyone else started to tear up, he couldn't help it. Needless to say, he made a wonderful impression on the Adair family.

Well, really, everyone was going their own way today, so I'll go down individual by individual and let you know what they did- and since I didn't stay with them, most accounts are second-hand:

Jorge: Jorge and I went down to the food pantry. We met with the director, Matt Whitaker, whom James and I went to college with. He speaks Spanish and explained to Jorge how the food bank works. Jorge was fascinated and had a lot of questions for him. He says that his clientèle is about 45% Hispanic, and would be a higher percentage higher if it weren't for the fact that they serve the Senior centers and the centers for the disabled. So he also had a wall full of pamphlets for social services, many in Spanish, and Jorge took one of each of those, too. After that, Jorge went down to a meeting with Juan Carlos in Salt Lake- something that JC thought would be interesting for Jorge to attend. I haven't spoken to him since he left, so I don't know what it was about.

Mari and Alondra: Went to spend the morning with Leo and Evelyn at the Multicultural Center. Leo talked with them a lot about the legal system, and the similarities and differences with the Mexican legal system (even though he's venezolano, he works mostly with Mexicans, and has learned from them the differences). He took them down to the DMV and they walked through the system of getting a driver's license- even taking the eye test. I was supposed to pick them up at noon, but he called and asked if he could take them out to his favorite Chinese restaurant. He says he gets a kick out of taking female co-workers and clients and sponsors to this restaurant, because the Chinese lady who owns it always comes out and teases him that he's with a new woman every time she sees him. His eyes absolutely sparkled when he told me about the look on her face when he walked in with two new pretty young ladies! The girls had a lot of fun, and Leo made them promise to keep him updated on their grades!

Cande Javier and Cristobal: Went to tour the YESCO factory here in town- that's the Young Electric Sign Company. They make everything from those huge scoreboards in sports arenas to the neon signs in Las Vegas. Plus they do the design and write and install the programs to keep the signs running, so all three boys were in heaven. My neighbor Chris Record works down there and has a couple of co-workers who speak Spanish, so they donned their safety glasses and disappeared for about an hour. The screens are actually digital and each pixel has three color lights- blue red and green. Depending on how bright or how light they make each one of the three colors, they said they can make something like 120 colors. All three colors at full brightness makes white. They showed how they design the signs, how they put together the pixel panels, how they build the steel casing, how they connect everything to computers, and how they install the signs. The three of them were absolutely talking over each other to explain to me everything they'd seen. They loved it.

Pati: Went to visit the kitchen of the restaurant "Mi Ranchito de Logan". It's a popular little Mexican restaurant that some friends of ours own. It's so popular that they just moved to a bigger building. She asked them a lot of questions about prices here vs. Mexico (Mario is from the D.F., and his wife Linda was born in LA, but her parents were from Jalisco), taxes, and also the difference likes and dislikes that Hispanics and Americans have when it comes to their Mexican food, and how they balance that. She said they didn't talk as much as they just ate- just kept having her try other dishes. She went through and told me the differences between what she'd tasted and what she prepares- hotter, sweeter, greasier......

Meli: Went to visit the Children's House- the preschool that's affiliated with the University. Hers was the only stop where no one spoke any Spanish- the lady that I knew from Colombia was on vacation. But it was really easy for her just to play with the kids and observe. They were having free play and centers while she was there, which meant that the kids could move around to different play activities and learning centers as they liked. A couple of the kids there spoke Spanish. There were a couple of activities that she really liked- for example, one where the teacher was reading a book and let the kids dress up like the characters and act out the story as they went along (or something like that). Meli loved that idea and took mental notes that she wants to do something similar in her classroom one day. They absolutely loved having her there and said she was a joy. Of course, she was playing with Cecily in the van before we dropped her off, and Cecily was really sad that she was leaving....she thought those Children's House kids were so lucky they got to play with Meli!

Christian: Went to see my brother in the Ecology lab at the University first. My brother studies bacteria that grow in the soil. Christian's actually more interested in medicine, but with all of the new laws having to do with privacy, it's a lot harder to get opportunities to do hands-on things in a hospital, so Jacob took him into his lab and let him look at a bunch of different bacteria that he's studying. Christian said his favorite were the ones that are growing inside of salt crystals in the Great Salt Lake. He said he was surprised that they bacteria are so varied in color and shape, and he'd never used a microscope before. And my brother, even though he speaks Spanish (well....Chilean....) would only speak English to Christian. He kept telling him that if he's going to be a first-rate scientist, his English needs to be really good. Christian said he begged him a couple of times to switch over to Spanish, but Jacob wouldn't. Actually, I'm pretty proud of my brother- not many of us are able to resist Christian's charms :). Then James took Christian on a quick run-through of the hospital where he works. As I said, he couldn't do a lot because of the risk that Christian would see the name of one of the patients and run to the tabloids with it.......but he did get an idea of how the medical system here works. And James also explained our horrible medical insurance system to him.

After everyone finished, Dave Bell, a Rotarian who's hosting Cris and Javier, invited everyone to have grilled hamburgers at his house. We went over there at 7:30. I made sure to take a picture of the "short-cut" that just about killed the van. He has a huge yard overlooking the valley, with a fire pit and a trampoline and we were able to play on the neighbor's sports court, too. Meli had never been on a trampoline, so Alondra and Javier got her up there and were trying to teach her how to jump, and she just couldn't get it, kept getting bounced and falling. Alondra was laughing so hard I was afraid she was going to have an accident.....

And, speaking of accidents, Cecily had one while we were there because she didn't want to waste precious time using the bathroom, so she waddled over to me like kids do when they're set, without bending her knees, which also had the kids in stitches. Ha ha. I didn't think it was that funny. She walked right over to Dave (who's probably about 57) and asked if he had any Pull-ups at his house. The neighbor's golden retriever was running loose in the yard, and he would come running up to Cecily so quickly that he'd spook her and she'd jump into the arms of anyone around. The kids loved that- they'd grab her and run away from the dog (this was pre-accident, that's why they loved it).

We roasted marshmallows and stayed at Dave's until 10. And then we decided we couldn't let the kids leave the country without toilet-papering someone's house. So James took them all down to our neighbors' house, who have many lovely bushes and two very tall trees, and gave everyone a roll of paper. We didn't finish our evening until 11:30, but tomorrow, Pioneer Day, they should be able to take it easy.

They had quite a scare when they found a story online that said that Mexico wasn't going to let Continental fly in Mexican airspace anymore until they'd paid some back taxes. I think they'd been thinking, until then, that they were so sad the month was almost over. But when they thought there was a slight chance they'd get stuck here, they did start to get antsy. I told them that I was sure that things would be fine by Saturday, and that they would in fact be able to see their families again.

Well, tomorrow (he he, today) is Pioneer Day. I'm just going to drop them off at Willow Park where the parade/games/carnival everything is going on and let them choose how to spend their day.

Jenny

Thursday the 24th through Saturday the 26th

Sorry- I have quite a bit of catching up to do on my reports! But what could you do at this point- fire me?

Thursday morning we decided to let the city's 24th of July celebration (Pioneer Day, or Utah's birthday) be our babysitter because we desperately needed to work on our yard. We were afraid that if we didn't tackle it, that one of the kids would wander out into it and wouldn't be found again in time to catch the flight on Saturday. So I ran everyone down to Willow Park, where they had carnivals and games and volleyball and basketball and a parade going on. Since Jorge was staying with the Vasquez family, we arranged for them to meet with the 8 kids and Audrey. Elliot and James left because Elliot's soccer team was playing in a tournament in central Utah.

So Cecily and I worked on the garden for about four hours, and then the time came to pick up the kids. And I went out and tried to start the van and the key just got stuck in the ignition column. I could not get it to start. I could turn the key backwards so that only the radio and the lights would come on, but couldn't turn it forward to start the van. I hit the key, I sprayed it with WD-40, prayed, swore (no, I didn't swear, but I had very dark thoughts.....) and nothing worked. So I called a locksmith and he said this was a common problem with Dodge's, and he could order a fairly inexpensive part to fix it, but not today because it was a holiday. So I called Audrey to tell her what was going on, and sweet Juan Carlos got on the phone and said that he and his family had really been hoping to spend some time with the kids, so could they please have them over for pizza and soccer and a movie. The sweet guy acted like I was doing HIM a favor! So I wrestled with the van for a little longer, and finally took our truck down and traded my brother for his van. We picked up the kids and Juan Carlos and Wendy had been telling them about how fun the dollar store is, so we made a stop at the dollar store and they got a bunch of stuff for their families and friends.

We then made Navajo tacos and everyone dispersed to their homes. Javier and Cristobal moved in with us because their host family had obligations up at Bear Lake and wouldn't be back until Sunday. So they said goodbye. They decided to pitch our tent in the backyard and sleep out there. Jorge also came back to our house because the fact that I was now down to a two passenger twenty year old truck stressed him out and he didn't want to have to count on me coming to get him from the Vasquez' house.... I went back to my brother's house to trade him back for my truck, and I'd gotten a parking ticket. He house is near the University and they have resident parking so the students won't block their driveways, but we figured since school was out....sigh.

When we woke up the next morning, we had been toilet-papered. It was a suspiciously amateur job, and the downstairs bathroom was missing rolls of TP......

The next morning, we met at my friend and co-worker Karin DeJonge-Kannan's house. She is Dutch and her husband is from India- they have the most beautiful kids- Sunder is 14 and Kaliani is 11. Karin talked to them (all in English!) about cultural differences and tried to help them put into perspective a lot of the things that they'd experienced during the past month. I left them there, partly because I needed to start marinating chicken for the party that night, and partly because I didn't want them to use me like a Spanish security blanket.

From Karin's house, we went to the Indian Oven, and really good Indian restaurant. The kids seemed to really like the food and Karin and Sunder came with us so that we knew how to eat. Sunder pointed out that his dad usually eats Indian food with his fingers because that's how real Indians eat it, and the kids thought that was really cool. Another culture civilized enough to see no use for cutlery!

And then Mari had to be run all the way back up to her host family's house to pack her bags, because she'd convinced her host family that she didn't have to stay at my house that night- and she did. Complete wishful thinking on her part. She dragged her heels all the way, not wanting to have to say good-bye to her family.

Then we met at my house. I passed out some of the pictures that we'd had printed up for the kids and showed them how to do scrapbooking. Jorge had told me that he wanted to have kind of a closing meeting with them to talk about their experiences, and I thought scrapbooking would be a fun way for them to talk about it and to make something to show their families, but that's not what Jorge had in mind. I really hope that he will forgive me for telling all of you what happened at the meeting, but it just begs to be put down into words.......once again, I couldn't help think about Ted's saying that Jorge's not happy unless everyone's been crying.

So, he started out by playing some music on his computer- Pachelbel's Canon played on a synthesizer with the sound of crashing waves in the distance....And he asked them to close their eyes and take deep breaths and become one with the chair they were sitting on. Then he told them to think back a year when they were notified about this possibility, to when they got their passports, to when they met us, to when they said goodbye to their parents, to when they first saw us in the airport. At the end everyone except for Cristobal and me and Audrey was sobbing and holding hands and he kept telling them to breath deeply and feel at one with their chair, and at some point someone said that they couldn't because of all of the mocos in their noses... It was all just really dramatic- there were some choice lines like "think of the look on the faces of your mothers, the ones who had borne you and given you life, who were now watching you embark on a new journey with anxiety and pride...." Audrey was just plain old confused. And it wasn't the kind of thing that I could stop and translate for her. It would have broken the mood. But listen to me, little Miss Stodgy Hold-your-feelings-in Northern-European-stock Repression Girl. It probably woulda done me good to have sobbed with them.

So we scrapbooked until it was time for our party. I'd told Karin and her kids that they were welcome to come to our party, and she'd said they couldn't because she had to volunteer at the Fair Trade shop until 6:30. She called me that afternoon and apologetically asked if they could come even if they couldn't bring anything, because her son wouldn't leave her alone about it, saying that he really wanted to spend more time with the kids. So she and other host families came and we had a really good time.

Meli's host mom brought her some lotions and bees wax candles that she'd made herself, along with a bunch of cooking utensils and working gloves for her family. Kami, her host mom, left in tears. She was so impressed with Meli, and her son didn't want her to leave. And I just really loved Meli, too. I felt like both she and Christian were especially sensitive to times when they could tell that I was getting tired and that I needed help. And not only would the two of them pitch in and help with things, but they would also cheerfully and kindly tell some of the others who were sometimes bottomless pits of neediness to back off.

Mari just about collapsed from grief at having to say goodbye to her host family. She really connected with them and did NOT want them to leave.

Pati went home to stay with her host family, and so did Christian and Cande, since Cande's host family was in our backyard.

On Saturday morning we had a little bit of stress when Pati and her host family arrived a little late. Pati's host parents were driving a car, I was in my brother's van again, and James was in our car. We'd made a comment to KJ, Cande's host dad, the night before that it seemed like we were always waiting for the girls because they jumped in the shower 10 minutes before we were going to leave. He said he was glad to see that that was something that transcends cultural divides.

Elliot had to leave earlier in the morning because, darn it, his team had made it to the final game in their tournament. We told him that since he's the goalie, he could have prevented that.... He got really emotional and was really crying. He was not excited to see any of them leave and I think they were all really touched that he seemed so crushed to have to say goodbye to them.

We made it to the airport and tried to do the automatic check-in, but the machines didn't like us. So we had to check in one by one. The guy at the counter gave gate passes to me and Audrey and Cecily. Bruce and Karen said good-bye to the kids before security. We walked them to the gate and said good-bye. In a way, all of the stress of checking in and going through security was good, because it distracted us from lingering on the fact that we were saying goodbye. I just told them they were all my heroes and then booked it out of there before I could cry.

Cecily refused to say goodbye to the kids. She said she didn't want them to go. If she didn't say goodbye, then maybe they wouldn't go...

The night before, I'd discovered that about half of the kids had brought photographs of their families. I hadn't even thought to ask them if they had, so sat down and enjoyed looking through their family photos. The pictures of the house where Meli lives were heartbreaking. Such beautiful people living in a place that wasn't worthy of them. And the same with the pictures of Javier's little sisters, smiling even though all of them are covered with dust because their home doesn't have a floor. Especially sweet was the picture of his littlest sister running around with they play backpack that someone gave to her. Javier said that it was her favorite thing- that she even slept with it on in anticipation of being able to go to school and be someone important.

And so that is how our month with our Project Amigo scholars ended. We added up our expenses and came in just under the $1000 dollars that we'd budgeted in our family to spend on them (if you don't include the 12-passenger van I bought...). We didn't get a whole lot of sleep. A lot of things we'd hoped for, like having all of our guests gone by about five p.m. so that we could have family time, didn't happen. We think that the anti-virus software found all of the spy programs on our computer that were downloaded with the chat rooms that the students used. The ignition column in the van that I'd bought just for transporting the kids broke so I went to borrow my brother's van to take them around and in the meanwhile got a ticket on my truck. (That sounds like a line from _Alexander and the Terrible Horrible No-Good Very Bad Day_) And yet in the last couple of days of the trip, I kept asking myself if there wasn't something else that I could do for them. If there wasn't some way that I could honor the humanity that I had seen in each of them, and if there wasn't some way that I could say in word or action or gift that I didn't understand why they weren't born in as fortunate a circumstance as I was. I wished that I could impress upon them the fact that they were worthy and intelligent and beautiful enough to deserve a life with every opportunity that I had had.

And so, darn it, my family and I finished this month with our Project Amigo Scholars with an itch that's even greater than the one we've had ever since we first made contact with Ted about 18 months ago. This month just wasn't a big enough fix.

Jenny