For Abdul Rafiq Lartey and
Birama Ndiaye the program is personal.
Lartey, 17, and Ndiaye,
15, were chosen to participate in this year’s program. They
described the experience of leaving their homes, their
families and their friends for a nine-month opportunity to
come to Toledo, attend Scott High School and become immersed
in the American culture,
“This experience has
changed my life,” said Lartey who said he heard about the
program in Ghana. “People from outside of the school came
in to educate us on how to live moral lives on campus,
because we were boarding students,” he said. “One person in
the group was an [ACES] alumnus who told us that it was a
very good program and that we would get the chance to come
to America, experience American culture and study abroad for
one year.”
Lartey said he was
initially skeptical about the opportunity. “I personally
thought that it wasn’t possible because I didn’t think that
it was something that existed for someone to buy you a plane
ticket and you could go outside of the country and stay in
another country and study there for free and have a close
family,” he said. “I didn’t believe it.”
Lartey said that he
remained doubtful throughout the process including the
testing, the interviewing and even the receipt of his
passport. “I didn’t believe it until I got on the airplane,”
he said.
“I always dreamed of
coming to America, and I wanted to come here because of the
movies I watched on TV. It was like a dream,” he said. But
he soon discovered that life in the Toledo would be a far
cry from the movies he’d seen on television.
“The people [here] are
totally different, Lartey said. “In Ghana I was with the
people that I grew up with. We slept in the same school and
we knew each other. It was more of a bonding [experience]
than it is here. When I got here I was confused. I had
sleepless nights,” he said. “And when my host mother took me
places like, the mall, I still couldn’t believe it. It took
me about three months to settle into this environment.”
And with just a couple of
months left before he returns to Africa, Lartey said he has
made many friends and has had several positive experiences
that have strengthened, and inspired him. He has perfected
his English, taken broadcasting classes and participated in
public speaking events.
“My English has improved
vastly, and so has my broadcasting skills” he said. “I was
not so much of an outspoken person when I came here.” But he
is now comfortable speaking in front of crowds and sharing
information about ACES.
And in June, he will leave
behind the values that he brought from Ghana and hopefully a
deeper appreciation of Ghanaian music. “I tried my best,”
Lartey said. “I went to the extent of going to a Christian
church with my host family, even though I’m a Muslim. I
participated in all of the family events. And I participated
in household responsibilities. I did the dishes and ironed
my host family’s clothes, and I had talks with my host
brother about parental respect. When I go back home I hope
they will remember me and say ‘Oh if Rafiq were here he
would have been doing the dishes. I hope that I remind them
of a person that they will always remember.”
And he will carry to Ghana
all of the lessons he’s learned through training and
teaching and relationships that have inspired him. “I want
people to know how much I’ve learned from here, because a
lot of things I’ve learned here people don’t know in my
country,” said Lartey.
He plans on using those
newly acquired leadership skills to help his community. “I
want to be able to teach them that community service matters
and why you should value your community and your culture and
how you should be able to relate to one another around the
world,” he said.
“Our country has a lot of
economic problems. If I go back there and educate people
that we all have to contribute to the progress of the
country, I feel like we could solve our problems by
ourselves. Nobody is going to do anything for us, but it’s
the responsibility of each and every one of us. There are a
lot of things I want to do. Those are just a few things.”
And even though Birama
Ndiaye and Lartey didn’t meet until they arrived in Toledo,
they share similar stories. Ndiaye, who described his home
country of Senegal as a “beautiful country with a diverse
culture, said that his road to here was easier for him to
believe. But he also went through an adjustment period once
he got to the U.S. He described the process, “My English
teacher talked about the program and said that everyone
could apply,” said Ndiaye.
He said that his father’s
previous enrollment at Virginia Tech and reassurance that
“you can do everything if you can put your heart in it,”
gave him the confidence to believe that it was possible. “It
was like a dream for me to come here,” Ndiaye said. “Even
before I took the exam, I went home and told my mom, ‘I’m
going to the U.S.’”
He arrived in September
which meant he wouldn’t have a break between school
sessions, but that seemed to be the easy part. “The most
challenging was leaving my country, and changing my whole
life to come to a new land,” he said. “I wasn’t sure how my
host family was going to be or how the people were going to
be. It was very hard.”
Also hard for Ndiaye was
the process of learning English as a second language to his
native French and adjusting to the Ohio climate. “I used to
wear shorts and short-sleeved shirts back home and when I
came in September I always wore shorts and they would ask me
‘why are you wearing shorts? It’s cold.’”
And like Lartey, Ndiaye
has also adjusted to new surroundings and quickly took in
stride a full school schedule and multiple extracurricular
activities. “I love sports,” Ndiaye said about his
participation in soccer, basketball, track and bowling. And
he also found time to join the band.
And also like Lartey,
Ndiaye has gained wisdom and a sense of community activism
from those around him which he plans to take home to
Senegal.
“When I go back home I
want to work for my home country and help them a lot with
the government,” Ndiaye said. “I want to promote working
together. I want to promote learning the English language.
It is the key to opening a lot of doors for the future. I
see my government and they are way back in technology,
finance, education, and politics. We need more. We don’t
have enough. We don’t have enough food. But we have a lot of
different ways to work on that. Sometimes people wait for
someone to lead them. I say why wait for someone to change
things. Be the change you want to see.”
And while it’s clear that
the young men’s time spent in the U.S. has had a resounding
influence on their lives, the experience would not have been
possible without the families that provided a safe, loving
place to virtual strangers. Tracee Ellis pointed out the
importance of host family participation for the success of
the program.
“Our families are
volunteers that take these students into their homes,” said
Ellis. “Sometimes it’s challenging, and sometimes it’s not,
because in the American culture we aren’t always globally
competent and don’t understand the importance of the
exchange experience.”
Ellis who remembers her
first experience as a host, 15 years ago, praised families
who are able to look beyond the challenges of hosting and
focus on the bigger goal to help ACES accomplish its mission
of diplomacy.
“This is a life changing
experience not only for the student but for them,” Ellis
said. “Focus on what the experience does for the foreign
students and for the American students. When they go to
school with them and do activities and play sports, it
teaches them about the world, which is something that we
have to leave in their hands. They are the future leaders.
And even though we have a lot of conflict in the world, and
we have a lot of controversy, we have to somehow teach our
children to break through that and to understand one
another. That is the main reason. So the experience of
hosting brings that right to the forefront in your life. I
don’t regret any of it and I keep on doing it and I
encourage other families to do it.”
Lartey and Ndiaye said
they are grateful for the families who opened their doors to
them. “I want to say thank you to my family for accepting
me,” said Ndiaye.
And Lartey emphasized, “I
wouldn’t have been able to experience this or been able to
give this part of me to America if someone hadn’t hosted me.
America has gotten some part of me because someone was
willing to host me.”
When they return home, the
two plan on revisiting the foods they have missed so much
while here – mangos plucked right off the tree and fish and
rice with African spices. And once there they say that they
will miss the foods they have now become accustomed to – mac
and cheese and burgers.
For more information on
becoming an international host family for ACES, contact
Tracee Ellis at 419.450.0631, email her at
Traceeellis.goglobal@aol.com or go to the ACES website:
Exploretheworld.org.
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