Final Post: Farewell

March 16, 2020– Day #1 of Coronavirus & final hike– Black Mountain of Maine

–Click photo to enlarge–

The house is quiet. My fancy new heater, a gift from my brother Rob, is whirling away in my office. At the front of my desk, Bailey is sound asleep after his demanding day at Aunt Sharon and Uncle Mike's. This morning, the temperature hit 13 degrees Fahrenheit even with a bright sun--winter's hanging on.

Yesterday, back from Portland and goodbyes to Guido, I posted a Farewell message on Facebook to my friends and family who have followed the boys throughout the year. Those folks have written kind notes wishing the boys happy lives... Connie, Ben, and I do as well. (And, of course, Bailey Tuckerman.)


FAREWELL... one of the hidden casualties of coronavirus has been the exchange students across America. My boys, Guido and Sebino, returned home abruptly this week to Spain and The Netherlands as did many of their international friends. The boys have met new people, learned about our country, loved being Mountain Valley HS Falcons, and discovered more about themselves through their experiences. They also became ski racers!

We thank the River Valley Community for welcoming and supporting these boys. Their teachers and coaches have been gems, and their legions of friends and their families have opened their homes and hearts...

On a personal note, thanks to my neighbors and long-time friends, Connie and Ben Venskus (Constance) for their thoughtful commitment to the boys. And thanks to Abbey Rice, our local Greenheart exchange student coordinator, mother and community member extraordinaire. (BTW, everyone, give hosting a look--you might just love it).

For now, here's to Sebino and Guido and their happy lives ahead. You'll be missed.

First Day Together, September 2, 2019 

Guido and Ivan are home!

Portland, Maine 2019

                    Madrid, Spain, 2020


Guido and the Spanish armada from Maine left The Mall in South Portland at about 12:30pm. They arrived at Logan airport to fly out at 6:00pm. By 1:30am in the morning, my phone shows a text from Guido, "We landed right now." Later this morning we were greeted to the following happy photos.

Mom and her boys

Dad and his boys

I think this is Ivan, and I'm guessing Guido is in the same position!

"They went where?" 

 

The Last Supper.

Bailey trying out his new bed... ;-) 

Guido and I sat down to a dinner of "leftovers" tonight as his last night is upon us. Sebino will know the meal well: Chicken & Rice with Green Beans. Before our dinner, Guido fed Bailey for the final time. (Lots of finals today.)

"Bailey Tuckerman Kent.... Free!" 

After dinner, we did the traditional last night look-through of a packet of memories I collect from the year, including a book I'd given the boys upon their arrivals, newspaper clippings, Mountain Valley High School athletic letters, notes from teachers, and more.  

Leftovers

When they arrived, I gave Guido and Sebino copies of my Black Mountain book.  

Paperwork from Greenheart 

Soccer article

Many years we have a party here at the house to celebrate the exchange year. The boys invite friends and there's a lot of laughter and some tears. Then, there's a final dinner with Connie and Ben, and on the last night, the boys select their favorite meal (Mac-n-Cheese most years). We laugh and talk about the year and probably eat too much dessert. Sometimes we watch a movie, but the evening always ends up kind of quiet... This year, it's very quiet, but that's OK. 

Ivan & Guido, First Day

Tomorrow, we head off with Carol (Spain) to Portland. She has FOUR huge suitcases. Unfortunately, her host dad has to work and her host mom is caring for their daughter who is ill. The Spanish kids will take a van from Portland to Boston and then fly out at 6pm arriving in Madrid at 6:00am. Guido and Ivan will have a good time catching up.  For tonight here in Rumford, we wish you all well on the penultimate evening of the 2019-20 exchange year. One more post tomorrow as we say farewell.

From Rasmus and Felix's party

Sebino's Home! Next up, Guido!

Sebino left Portland at about 3:00pm on Thursday and landed this morning in Amsterdam. Tomorrow, Guido will drive in a van from Portland with 4 other Spanish students--including his brother Ivan--to Boston. The group will fly out at 6pm landing in Madrid at about 6:00am.

After making pizza last night, Guido stayed at a friend's house while Bailey moved right back into his room! The boys are almost safe at home.

His penultimate dinner in America.

Someone likes the big bed again!

It Takes a Village

Final breakfast

The boys got up early this morning for breakfast with the ski coaches and Madison. I drove them over at 7:30am. Hosting kids is a group effort.

Yes, you've got the guy at home doing laundry, making meals, listening to stories, checking on Internet usage and bedtimes and wake-ups "CONNIE WILL BE HERE IN 10 MINUTES," cleaning messes or guiding the cleaning of messes, checking up on homework, driving here and there and back again, shopping shopping shopping for food, guiding behavior according to your rules, talking with teachers and coaches and parents and coordinators and kids, adapting to kids' quirks and needs and demands, putting on birthdays and Xmas and whatever gatherings, laughing at the crazy stuff over dinner, dealing with moods, asking a kid to get a hair cut or to wear deodorant or to brush their teeth, worrying when your kid gets into some other kid's car to travel somewhere, welcoming natural parents, being lied to, checking with friends' parents when your kid spends an overnight in another home, and caring so much that it hurts... Sound familiar? It's parenting, plain and simple. But you know what? It's not simple at all because they're not your kids and that's a huge obligation. And that's why it takes a village.

The boys' village...

Connie & Ben and the boys

Connie and Ben opened their home and family and lives to two strangers, two teenagers! They fed and housed the boys. Connie showed up every single morning to drive the kids to school... 35 minutes after the school-bus went by our home. Lucky boys. Very lucky...

The Papianou's offered the kids special opportunities through the high school Outing Club, paid extra attention to them, and loaned the boys ski equipment when the stuff I had salvaged over the years faltered. These special people make a difference in lives and were extra special to Sebino and Guido... And then there's Abbey.

Lots of people help with The Foreigns, and most especially our local Greenheart coordinator, Abbey Rice. In her first year at this work, Abbey put on parties, checked in, counseled, followed up, served the best chocolate chip cookies on Planet Earth, kept finding out this information and that rule, shared her family and home and time, emailed endless informational notes, offered rides, and served as a back-up, back-up host. And then COVID-19 shows up and "her kids" simply vanish. Tough way to end. But I hope she knows the difference she made in our kids' lives

Without question, hosting international students takes a village. 

 

Day # 3 COVID-19... Goodbyes Underway

Some of the 2019-20 Exchange Students at Marie's home

As most readers of this blog know, the boys are heading home this week if the airlines continue to run. The Greenheart Program made the difficult decision a couple of nights ago to have their students return home to their natural parents. It's an unhappy way to end, but as I've said to many friends, now these teenagers will know why we adults look and act the way we do. Life always has surprises, it's how we adapt to these moments that tells us the story of ourselves.

Yesterday, Sebino spent the night with Egan and Evrit Roy; Guido stayed with his friend, Caleb Frisbee. Today, Marie hosted a gathering of 8 exchange students so they'd have a chance to say abrupt but proper goodbyes.

Sebino flies home tomorrow with Hanna, his girlfriend from Poland. Guido will be stuck with Bailey and me until Saturday when he meets up with Ivan and the other Spanish students to take a van to the airport.

Now, Sebino is off shopping with Hanna, and I conned Guido into cleaning the inside of our winter-ravaged car. Bailey is in the back hall eating a peanut butter Kong stuffed with treats, and I'm looking at 145 email from today and wondering why...

And so it goes....  

Guido cleaning the car and hating life in the good old USA
:-)

DAY #1... COVID-19

Summit of Black Mountain

Our first day of social distancing, and the boys have done brilliantly. Bailey, too. We don't have homework from school yet--however, the teachers gathered today at school to make homework plans.  In lieu of school, I put together a plan. Here's how their day went:

1) study COVID-19 (I'm supplying the reading and videos from our blog),

2) to clean and organize the kitchen cupboards, and find room for the bulk food buy I did on Saturday,

3). free time (Guido will kill things online with Ivan, his brother [gaming], Sebino will chat with friends), and

4) we will climb Black Mountain.

So, here's the album of the day:

The food closets were a wreck, but...

The boys did a fabulous job of organizing...

Baby! How perfect. 

I'm so pleased!






Football on the mountain trails






Bailey and Brother Sebino at the summit

                                                                      Father and son...

The three brothers...

United States CDC Guidelines and Information (Center for Disease Control) for COVID-19

We're living in interesting times. For you parents who have trusted your sons to our care, Connie, Ben, and I want to assure you that from this evening on, we'll be following the CDC guidelines when it comes to the care and safety of Sebino and Guido. As you know, the schools have just closed for two weeks, and my best guess is that that time will be extended to 3- or 4- or 6-weeks... or more. But, we don't know. The the most important word from our US expert is to be vigilant and do more than necessary to stay away from the virus.  

The news show included below, Meet the Press, is the longest running TV show in history. If you have an interest in listening to our country's leading expert on infectious disease, you might like to watch this segment from Meet the Press in the first video.  You may not be able to connect because it's American TV. If not, the second video is the entire Meet the Press show on YouTube. Just click on the caption to link to the broadcast.

NBC News Version of One Section of Meet the Press

You may not be able to link to this show; however, you should 

be able to link to the YouTube version below. 

YouTube Version of Meet the Press

Please write if you have questions or concerns. We only want what's best for your kids.

The World is Busy and So are We!

Winter Dance Haircuts 

Umaine Campus and its Mall (green space)

Maine's University campus--7 of them--have all closed down due to COVID-19. Students head home today and all university classes will be offered virtually (online). It so happens that I set up my spring semester with online classes, so I am not really affected.  Today, many of the 1200 senior students at the University of Maine are meeting on the mall (the great lawn on campus) to say goodbye after nearly four years together. It's a tough way to end their college careers...  


For the past year, I and a team of 10 colleagues from around the United States have worked to offer a conference in Washington, DC... today and tomorrow, March 13-14. Three days ago, we canceled the conference. It was the smartest thing to do since we had 500 people from across America attending. But still...

We wait to hear whether our public schools will close, and my best guess is that they will at some point. But! We'll wait and see. School sports seem to be on hold until late April.

Over the past week, as you probably know, the boys had a great time at the Winter Carnival Dance. And yes, they got the best haircuts for the dance. They spent the night after the dance at their friend Anthony's home. We also hosted their friend Hamidou (Africa) for an overnight. The boys practiced baseball in the snow in the side yard.

Last night, the boys skied at Black Mountain--it's raining today, but I think we'll still have enough snow for skiing for another two weeks.

Bailey and I have continued to hike this winter. We had a particularly fun hike on Black Mountain last Monday in 60 tree F temperatures. What a delight! And as Mariska will attest, those temperatures are 50 degrees warmer than during her visit!

Bailey guarding the backyard

Add caption

A boy from Spain and a boy from Netherlands teach a boy from Africa
how to hit a ball. I'm guessing that's not happening too many places in our World these days. 

The latest Little Kent... Hudson Stephen Kent.  

Hud!

Shot of Mount Blue while I hike Black Mountain on a warm winter's day. 

An architect's drawing of the new hotel coming to Rumford... our only hotel!
Yay!!!

Sebino batting and Guido pitching.

Bailey after a rough day at daycare.