A friend to man

Let me live in the house by the side of the road where the race of men go by;
The men who are good and the men who are bad, as good and as bad as I;
I would not sit in the scorner's seat, or hurl the cynic's ban;
Let me live in a house by the side of the road and be a friend to man.
-- Sam Walter Foss

I like the above quote. It pretty much sums up what I think the exchange student program is all about…living on the side of the road and being a friend to man.
For two days last week we were working very hard to make sure the airline finally found Julia’s long lost luggage. After many exasperating phone calls her traveling luggage finally arrived Tuesday in Tupelo and then it was delivered to our home and I took it from there out to her Host home. With the school open house that evening I suspect that she really wanted and needed her clothes.

Julia and her Host family and our student Anna and I, along with Ariel and Erin went to BHS to introduce the exchange students to the teachers and to get familiar with the school. Amjaad’s Host mom Gina met up with me so that she would be able to talk to some teachers because Amjaad had not arrived yet.

The rest of the week was exciting as Gina and her family were in the count down awaiting the arrival of Amjaad. She arrived in Washington DC on Thursday and would be arriving in Memphis Saturday morning. In the meantime, I was busy working on getting everything ready for another family to hear from their pending exchange student.
Ema from Serbia is approved to come to Calhoun City and live with Gina and Rickey Baker for the school year. Gina and Gracye (and Rickey too I suspect) had gone into the same high gear mode the rest of us did when we realized that a new person would be coming to live in our homes.

Saturday morning, the Schmitz family, my family and Donna and Roger Williams were all up before the sun getting ready to make the drive to Memphis. Donna was meeting two YES girls from Pakistan that were going to live in Grenada. I was there along with the Schmitz family to finally meet Amjaad. We all stood on the mezzanine and watched the planes landing and taking off. As the time of her arrival drew near the planes were landing back to back with perhaps one minute between them. As the plane we thought she might be on was being guided to one of the far off gates, we made our way back to a spot where we could see the passengers coming down the concourse.

I knew that Amjaad was tall and that was what I was looking for. Pretty soon I saw three girls wearing bright red YES t-shirts and one of them was very tall. I started waving wildly and taking pictures. Gina’s son Gregory was holding his orange sign that said Welcome Amjaad up. Her other little ones were eagerly looking at the girls approaching our group.

Donna and one of the Host families from Grenada greeted the Pakistani girls and I introduced Amjaad to her host family and to mine. It was so good to finally meet her in person after talking with her for weeks on facebook. We were sending messages to her mother in Bethlehem to let her know that her child was safely in our hands. After we went down to the baggage claim area and retrieved her luggage, (and it all arrived thankfully!) She left with Gina and Michael and the boys to begin her new life adventure.

Donna had to go to Tupelo with one of the Pakistani girls because her luggage went on to Tupelo. After they picked up her luggage then they were able to go on to deliver her to her host family in Grenada.

Now I am waiting to go to the airport one more time with Gina and Rickey Baker to greet Ema. Hopefully she will arrive in the same airport as her luggage and will be ready to hit the road running because she won’t have any time to get over the jet lag!

This is going to be an exciting year for the high schools in Bruce, Calhoun City and Vardaman. Donna and I are here to answer any questions that the students and faculty will have and to help out in any way that we can. For the community at large, these students are required to give presentations about their countries. Give us a call or get in touch with their host families and make arrangements for them to come and speak to your club or organization or church group. We are planning International Tasting luncheons serving traditional foods from their home countries in each community to help raise funds so we can take these kids on a special trip or two.

Let us show them how welcoming our communities and schools are and lets learn to be “a friend to man’