Foreign Exchange

We have been hosting two Chinese boys (15 and 16) in our home the past week.  Marlys has been hosting two girls (14 and 16).  We have spent all of our evenings together with the kids, feeding them American food and playing Chinese card games after dinner.  They love our food, barbecue chicken and pot roast, ice cream, scrambled eggs with ham cut up in it... They are happy kids from 4 different cities in China who didn't know each other before this trip.  One of the girls speaks English very well, and the boys not so much. But the more we are together the more comfortable they feel trying to speak.  The boys have loved swimming and playing basketball.  The girls loved swimming and shopping.  Saturday we took them to our studio and introduced them to linocut.  They loved the skeleton prints of Artemio Rodriguez, so they used parts of his images learn the printmaking process.  They were engaged and encouraging to each other.  And they were proud of their accomplishments. 

Saturday night we took them to the exhibition opening at the Arizona Latino Arts and Culture Center "SB1070 - An Artist's Point of View".  We tried to explain the new law and why people were upset about it.  They took it all in but preferred to hang out at the US Airways Center where the Suns play.  Marlys said, you never know what they will remember from this trip, 20 years from now.  It has been wonderful having them here and getting to know them.