Living with American family

By Khalfan Said

 

Living with American family

A week has passed since we arrived at University of Maine in the North-East of the United State of America for a month-long extensive training in journalism, 

To get a real sense of American culture we had a chance each of us to stay with American family for a couple of days during the week end  as part of our program. 

I was embedded to Professor Michael Grillo's family in the costal town of Penobscot, about 67 kilometers from Maine University while others were attached to the different host families.

As of 2009, Penobscot's population is 1,323 people, since 2000 census , it has had a population growth of 3.50 percent, according to the US census bureau.

It was my first time to live with American family, of course was a big challenge  to correspond with the way they live and the way I used to live back home.  

The first lesson I learned from my host, is to see farther(Mr.Grillo) is a one who prepare and cook food, which really you won't see this in most of Tanzanian families where by woman is responsible for all kitchen matters.

During my two-day stay, Mr.Grillo's wife (madame Hays) was one who drove me around, for sightseeing together with their two sons, Hurry and Peter, and Mr. Grillo was remained at home for house keeping matters, so this gave me a sense of equality and responsibility for all. Going back home women bear children and take responsibility for child care as well as preparing food.

Another experience that I had from Mr. Grillo's family is how to live with domestic animals in the house, here I'm talking about, pets and dogs, Americans like their European counterparts living with pets and dogs and regard them as part of the family is something normal, although we do so at home but the level of respect and discipline that the animals observed in the house is pretty different.

They know where toilets are, and also to respect directives given to them, while my experience back home,  is quiet different in most of the domestic animals we used to live with.

Another thing that I would like to share is, how Americans are strictly on time management, and I was told even in European countries they do the same,  I noticed this practice in one occasion, when River city cinema an NGO that my host,(Mr.Grillo) is a member. 

They organized an outdoor cinema at Pickering square in Bangor, and hundreds of people flocked to the square, the interesting thing was when the show came to an end, within 5 minutes the square was empty no body had a time to discuss what was all about the cinema, even to dismantle the objects that were used for the show hardly it took 20 minutes to finish the job. 

So if you go back home I mean (Bongo-land), people may start evaluating what was all about the cinema and even to dismantle those objects may took even 2 hours.

However, my host were very kind people, they treated me honestly, they know that as a strange person, I'm eager to learn their culture, economic and social activities, from a very first day, I enjoyed to interact with people at Pickering square for a free outdoor cinema, also, I had a time to attend a Penobscot parade where men women and children participated in a parade with their vehicles, some with motorbikes and others by foot just to interacts and show their cultural diversity.

My host also took me to a Fort Knox a place regarded as a state historic site, and Penobscot narrows bridge and observatory tower, I really enjoyed to see the power of architect, I was told by my hosts, Mr.and Mrs. Grillo, that project was approved in 2003, following the discovery and assessment of structural problems on the 1931 Waldo-Hancock Bridge.

They said following a series of community meetings to discuss the problems and their possible solutions, the Maine Department of Transportation undertook an amazing project to designing and building a replacement bridge with a goal of having that bridge operational in only 41 month.

This is only bridge with an observatory in North and Southern America and one of the only three such bridges in the entire world (The other two are in Thailand and Slovakia), according to the official information posted at the entrance of a tower.

The information shows that, total bridge weight is about 10,500, African elephants (roughly 126 million pounds) and a total bridge length is 2,120 feet. The observatory sits 42 stories above the river.

So in conclusion, I would like to than, Mr.Grillo's family for taking me around and see what makes Maine.

End.