Just call me Indy

Blogging from Bruce
July 7, 2008
Vonda Tedford Keon

I wear a lot of hats in my life. Mom, wife, artist, teacher, lay minister, medical clerk, chief cook and bottle washer, dilettante. You remember that one don't you? Jack of all trades. Well I am adding adventurer to my hat collection.

As my college bound daughter is set to go off on her next great life adventure, she kind of decided for me that I should also have another great adventure. She must be thinking I will suffer from semi-empty nest or something of the sort. Ha Ha. Little does she know. With her tenth grade bound sister left at home I am thinking that will be enough of an adventure. But no. She and the Good Lord have other plans for us.

We have talked about being a host family for a foreign exchange student before but never really acted on it because we have only have 3 bedrooms and they are small bedrooms at that, so it wasn't a feasible idea. It has just been a passing thought and that's about it. Until the phone call last Thursday.

Ariel had seen a notice hanging on a bulletin board when she worked at vacation bible school last week about needing a host family for a Korean girl ASAP. Her brain kicked in and she started talking to us about it. Her reasoning was she was going off to college so her room would be empty and the girl would be the same age as my other daughter Erin and in the same grade so they could study together yada yada. When I asked the question about where she would sleep when she came home for the weekend, which apparently won't be too often with the price of gas like it is, she had already figured that one out and said she could sleep on the sofa or spend the night at Grandmommies. Hmmm. I wonder how my mom is going to react to that proposal?

Scott and I talked it over and agreed that we could do this. So we set up a meeting with the area contact person and got the ball rolling. We made several frantic phone calls to get recommendations in and sent in a family portrait and got the paper work sent in for the background checks and wrote the introductory essay. We are in!

I look forward to this because when I was in high school, my Mom and Dad also hosted two foreign students in our home. For 2 or more years, we were host family to Lee from South Korea and Hideaki from Japan. Those two college students were in Mississippi in the turbulent 60's and were looked upon with suspicion. It was culture shock for both of them but they
learned to speak English with a southern accent, and loved my Mom's cooking. They cooked their favorites for us also. My family was multi-cultural before it even had a name. Daddy was stationed in Japan in the 50's when he was in the Army and always had a love for Japanese culture and food. Mom grew up in Memphis and was exposed to many different cultures so she also was very open to new things. Now, years later, we still keep in contact with the two men. Lee settled in Illinois, retired from his medical practice. If you take medication for Parkinson's you can thank him for it because he worked on developing that in the research labs of Ole Miss.

Hideaki was the only son in his Japanese family therefore he had to carry on the family business. He is quite the globe trotting businessman. If you have ever done karaoke, chances are you have sang using one of his brands of electronics. He has brought some of his employees to Mississippi for a visit. They are always amazed at how much space we have and
they leave loving black eyed peas and fried chicken and trying to say ya'll in the proper context.

So this is how the new adventure is going to unfold: I will turn 55 on August the 7th, I will take my daughter to the W and she will start her new educational life adventure on August the 9th and on August the 10th we will drive to the Golden Triangle Regional Airport and pick up Ji Eun as she begins her new adventure in a foreign land. Erin looks forward to a 'new sister' that is her age and grade level. We have already started learning about the South Korean culture and language so we can help to make Ji Eun's transition here easier.

Oh yeah, I am feeling like Indiana Jones. I am off on yet another of life's great adventures. Oh and Mom thinks it's a wonderful idea so the good Lord has his hand in this or we never would have gotten that phone call.

Now just where did I put my fedora?