Gregory Freeman: We Can Learn A Lot From One Another. PD 7/5/1992

Headline: WE CAN LEARN A LOT FROM ONE ANOTHER
Reporter: By Gregory Freeman

Publication: ST. LOUIS POST-DISPATCH
Last Printed: Sun., Jul. 5, 1992
Section: NEWS, Page: 4B, Edition: LATE FIVE STAR

WHEN I WAS 16, I took part in a program that would change my life forever.
    The program, the Experiment in International Living, was designed to teach its young participants what life was like in other parts of the world. I think I probably applied because a friend of mine had been in the program the previous year and returned to tell me about the wonderful experiences that he had in Mexico.
    Knowing little about the world outside of my neighborhood in north St. Louis, the program sounded like fun and I applied.
    To my great joy, I was accepted. And for three months, I had experiences that I would never forget.

Under the program, I was placed with a Mexican family in Zamora, Michoacan. Zamora, in the central part of Mexico, at the time had about 50,000 residents and was in the middle of miles of farmland. I was to live with this family through the duration of the program. I was considered a ''goodwill ambassador, '' and expected not only to learn a great deal about the Mexican culture, but to present the best possible face ofthe United States as well. I was not to be an ''ugly American, '' but instead to live as the Mexicans live.
For a kid like me, it was an initial shock. I arrived in Zamora armed with three years of high school Spanish that helped me very little. The night that I arrived seemed like a nightmare. I was introduced to a strange town and a strange family that prattled on in a language that I realized I didn't know very well. They spoke quickly and used plenty of slang I didn't understand. My head buzzed withconfusion.
For the next few days, I faced a serious dose of culture shock. I ate corn tamales at breakfast. I drank milk that had come straight from a cow. When I walked down the streets the townspeople - never having seen a black person before - cameout of their homes and called relatives just to watch me. It was a dizzying experience.

But before long, I began to pick up the language much better. I learned to speak and understand better. I adjusted to the food and really came to like it. I began making friends with the people who had found me to be such a curiosity. I even picked up an affectionate nickname - Grandote, or Big One - for my bulk.
By the time I left Mexico, I was speaking Spanish with ease and I had learned a tremendous amount about the Mexican culture. I hated to leave.
I majored in Spanish in college and retained an interest in Latin America. Even today, I have friends in Mexico whom I visit regularly. They and their families have come to visit me as well. I expect that the friendships I developed will last a lifetime.

I often think about that program as I think about how so many people in this country really seem to have difficulty understanding one another. There seems to be so much division based on so many superficial matters.

But what if there were an Experiment in National Living? What if there were some sort of program that would place city kids for three months with host farm families? What if rural teen-agers from the Midwest were placed with urban families in the Northeast? What if wealthy teen-agers were placed with poorer families? Black kids from California placed with white families in Iowa?
The list of possibilities could go on and on.

Participants in the program would probably learn that our similarities almost always outweigh our differences. They'd learn that underneath it all - the clothes we wear, the way we speak, the way we wear our hair - we are all people.
As ''goodwill ambassadors, '' they would expose the families with whom they would be placed to the good things about their cultures, as well as learn about the cultures of others.
And they would learn that the way they live isn't necessarily the ''right'' way to live but only one way to live, and that other lifestyles aren't necessarily wrong, only different.

I will always be grateful to those who accepted me into the program, believed that I would do a good job representing the United States and allowed me to explore Mexico and its people.
My eyes were permanently opened to the world around me. And I learned that we never really know how much we have in common until we learn to set aside our differences.

So many of our differences are surface only. A program like this one could help others to realize that.
At a time like this, when our differences seem more and more to be getting in the way of our understanding one another, this notion surely deserves a try.

Daniel Schesch - Webweaver

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