It was our first full day with our host families and in Tobati and a few things happened. Before the home stays, I was very nervous about being able to successfully connect with my host family and siblings, as well as leading a workshop on Human Centered Design (HCD). The HCD workshop included teaching the theoretical 5 steps of solving local problems based on community brainstorming, as well as working with the students to bring these theories to life at Santa Rosalia. Also, we had to present and coordinate all activities completely in Spanish. Safe to say, this sort of practice was not a part of the Spanish 4 curriculum and I couldn’t help but feel a bit uneasy to undertake this task. This definitely added to the total stress leading up to this moment. From missing the main planning meeting due to being sick, to working on the presentation while carsick on a bumpy bus ride, things were not looking great. However, the workshop went really well and we ended up getting so much done today. We not only went over time for the workshop, but we also spent the rest of the day together with the students from Santa Rosalia, buying the supplies needed for the upcoming projects. These projects ranged from supplying and setting up soccer gear, polishing doors, and putting up new signs for the school during their winter break.
The day started off with a wholesome breakfast complete with fried eggs and coffee, courtesy of my host mamá. She was very surprised when I told her that the majority of US students tend to skip breakfast. She says “If you skip breakfast, it messes with your whole mentality” every day like clockwork. In general, I expected a lot more general boredom and awkward silences from my encounters with my host family. But with the fact that I was staying with some familiar faces as well (Peniel and Camilla from the LearnServe group), the language barrier was not as big of a hindrance as I made it out to be. I’m looking forward to the next few days, as they seem well planned with projects to complete and more Asado to eat. This day went really quickly, and I have a feeling the days to come will follow suit.
In the past two days in Tobati, I have already made some of my favorite memories from the whole trip – sipping maté in the open-air living room, kicking a soccer ball around with my host family, and listening to every single one of their 100 chickens each morning.
Robbie B., Oakton High School