Learning can take place anywhere, according to Raviv Boudin, project supervisor from Canada World Youth.
Boudin is facilitating an exchange between Canadian and Bolivian students aged 17 to 24. When the group of students come to Canada later this year, they will be stationed in Sudbury.
The program focuses on teaching students about other cultures, gives them the opportunity to gain experience volunteering, and spend time studying gender and health equality issues.
“The focus is education that takes place outside the classroom,” Boudin said.
While students spend three months living in Sudbury, from the end of October until the end of January, they will stay with host families.
In 2007, Stacey and Dan Foy welcomed two students from the program into their Lively home.
“It ended up turning out really well,” Stacey said.
The focus is education that takes place outside the classroom.
Raviv Boudin,
project supervisor, Canada World Youth
Eighteen-year-old Ashleigh Kolla from Westlock, Alta. and 24-year-old Josephine Ndilai from Kenya spent the fall with the Foys and their two children, Bailey, who was 11 at the time, and Scott, who was nine.
Stacey said there was a bit of an adjustment period going from a family of four to a family of six, but the two girls blended in well with the Foys. She said Kolla settled in immediately, and “fit in like she was our own daughter.”
However, it took Ndilai a bit longer to get comfortable in their home.
“It was a different experience with her,” Stacey said. “In her culture, men are the superior beings. She really had a hard time warming up to (Dan).”
Ndilai said in Kenya, it is uncustomary for men to do household chores like cooking and cleaning.
“Men do not do that at all in Kenya,” Stacey explained.
One Sunday morning, when Dan was making breakfast, Stacey recalled Ndilai saying if he was in Kenya, people would “think that Dan was crazy or on drugs.”
The role of men wasn’t the only cultural difference the family learned about.
Stacey said Ndilai announced early in her stay at their home that she planned on gaining as much weight as possible.
“In Kenya, if you’re fat, it means you’re rich,” Stacey explained.
“She became very rich,” Dan added, with a laugh, noting that Ndilai gained about 40 pounds during her stay.
While Ndilai taught the Foys about Kenyan life, the Foys also shared Canadian traditions with her.
On the last day of the girls’ stay, Stacey said a snowstorm hit Sudbury. She was quick to suit up Ndilai and teach her how to ride a toboggan.
“We played outside for two hours probably,” Stacey said. “We made snow angels, and we did everything you could possibly imagine.”
While the girls were at the Foys, family received financial compensation from Canada World Youth. When they began, they didn’t realize they would get any money for hosting the girls, but cheques came fairly regularly.
Boudin said families that host Canadian and Bolivian students will receive $168 per week.
“It shouldn’t cost (the family),” he said. “They shouldn’t have to go into their bank account at all.”
Stacey and Dan said they would consider hosting students again, but know the experience they had with Kolla and Ndilai will be hard to match.
Boudin said host families can be traditional families, single people or any other “family” model, as long as they can offer “a family-like environment.
“It’s like having your own child in the house. I’m sure a lot of people in Sudbury try to teach their youth about self-reliance.”
Boudin clarified that host families are not expected to drive students around or cook for them. Two students can also share one room.
For more information about becoming a host family, contact Boudin at 561-8328 or [email protected].
If you have an interesting travel story you would like to share, e-mail reporter Jenny Jelen at [email protected] or phone 673-5667 ext. 377.
