Ten Peruvians walk out of the gate at DFW after an 8-hour flight from Lima, Peru. Excited about the 5-week long journey in America they were about to embark on, each of them was greeted by Mrs. Maggard and then boarded a bus to Jesuit where they met, or in my case, reunited with their Jesuit brothers.
Three of the Peruvians were staying with the Jesuit brother who they had hosted last summer, while the other 7 were meeting their families for the first time. One of the Peruvian students, Sebastian Hurtado, believed that “The emotion I felt coming off the plane was a mix of excitement and nervousness. I think I was in a better situation than the rest of the Peruvians because John (Pritchard) had stayed with me in Peru so I was not as nervous.”
The first night with their families started off with a presentation from each of the visiting students. Then, for the first night of what would be a 3-week long journey, the Peruvians slept in their Dallas homes. Carlos Riddle ’17 thought that “The first weekend I spent with Sebastian reminded me of why I participated in this program. I loved comparing the differences between our two cultures. When I was in Peru, the first night I spent with my Peruvian family made me miss my home so much, so I tried to make Sebastian feel as comfortable as possible. This was one of the many ways that my experience in Peru allowed me to be a better host brother for him.”
After the first weekend spent with their host families, the Peruvians had to attend school. Santiago, junior Jack Metz’s Peruvian brother, said, “My first day at the school made me the most nervous. I was very scared to be around so many other students speaking English so fast, but I soon realized that Jesuit was just like my own school. The part I most feared, not understanding anyone, came the easiest to me. I didn’t even know how much English I knew, but once I got to school, I immediately picked up on so much. It was great, and everyone made me feel so welcome.”
Every week brought new and interesting challenges for the hosts to face, whether it was explaining what something on a dinner menu meant or who would take their Peruvian brother home from school that day. While these may seem like simple and easy tasks, being from a different country can cause these to be scary and daunting tasks to the Peruvians.
Jack Metz ’17 explained that “Hosting a student from Peru made me appreciate the differences in cultures throughout the world. I loved seeing how Santiago interacted with everything put in front of him. There would be things I don’t think twice about that he would point out to me and make me realize how odd that would look if I had never seen it before. It was really an eye-opening experience for me.”
Before anyone knew it, we were spending our last weeks with our brothers and we were about to say goodbye. For the last week, all the Peruvians and host brothers went out to the Fort Worth Nature Reserve to go on a nature hike, in hopes that it would allow us to enjoy the few moments we had left with each other.
Then came the final day, alarm clocks set for 4 AM in order to get the Peruvians on their flights to Arizona. On a day filled with tearful goodbyes, I think I speak for everyone when I say that this entire experience allowed everyone in the program, and even those outside of it, to grow and learn more about themselves and their own culture, a lesson that all of us will hold for the rest of our lives.
