LABO Camp- Hosting Parmar IFYE from India- Maria IFYE from Panama

Rekio show Mary how to make a paper crane
In Japanese folk lore a crane is said to live for 1,000 years
to give a person a paper crane is to wish them prosperity & a long life

        LABO CAMP----Our family was involved with LOBO Camp for 15 years.  It involved Jr. Hi.- High School age Japanese youth.  They learned English by rote, in story or song.  They could recite the story of Huckleberry Finn but couldn't tell you they were hungry or needed to go to the bathroom. They learned English in a home study situation by LABO teachers [mothers].  In Japan they would not use English but speak Japanese. So the LABO Organization came up with the idea to send them to the U.S. to live with a host family where they would have to speak English. 

Jason with his LABO group

    Our involvement was with a weekend LABO Camp at Rocks Springs Ranch, which was before they went to their host family. They'd come in on Friday night and leave Monday morning.   Patrick & Jason  would be Group Leaders that took 14-15 Japanese youth to activities, with Jonathan's help, around RSR:  archery, rifle range, trail rides, crafts & canoeing. Later Paul would go as a helper.  Mary & I did a craft called God's Eye.  It was made with a couple of Popsicle type sticks and a long piece of multi colored yarn. 

    I helped the RSR Wranglers at the barn with the horses.  When Mary wasn't doing crafts with me she was  in the Camp Kitchen helping the RSR Staff that usually feed 100-200 people, there were always several groups besides LABO there.  The Japanese kids were a little afraid of horses, they had never been around horses but they all wanted to ride.  If a horse snorted or stomped their foot the boys would drop the reins and move away.  The girls would drop the reins, scream  and jump about 3 feet.  The procedure was to stand in the stall doorway holding a horse’s reins.   When all were ready lead the horses outside in a line & stop, then mount the horses & go on a trial ride supervised by 2-3 Wranglers.  When they returned they were to dismount, lead the horses into the barn and put them back into the stall. 

   I was a Jack-of-all-trades.  If a horse moved, instead of holding the horse they would move,  sometimes they'd be 20 feet from  the stall doorway instead of in it, I would reposition them & the horse.  Leading the horses outside they might drop the reins letting the horse walk on, I would get the reins and  the Japanese kids together again.  Outside they needed help making the horse stand still and mounting up.  After the trail ride they need help dismounting and getting the horse back into the stall. 

Paul joins a LABO trail ride or maybe Jonathan
They were both riding RSR horses at this age.

    Mealtime was a chance to be introduced to American food.  Pancakes were totally new to them.  A few would like butter and syrup but most preferred to eat them like bread.  Mealtime was a good way to introduce them to what mealtimes would probably be like with their family.  At Rock Springs a server would go to the kitchen window and get a big bowl  of food and it would be passed around the table that seated 10 people.  Passing food around the table was a new concept.  They drank a lot of coffee.  Either because they drank coffee in Japan or it was a chance they didn't have at home.  At first the RSR kitchen staff wasn't prepared for 85-90 Jr.Highers drinking coffee 2-3 cups of coffee a meal.   Light switches on the wall were totally new.  Most lights in Japan were pull string operated and in the middle of the room. 

    They drove the RSR lifeguards crazy at the swim pool.  Pools in Japan have no ladders, they just swim to the edge and jump out.  The American rule of using a ladder was new, 90-100 kids jumping out of the pool would drive the lifeguard nuts.  They would blow their whistles and yell at the kids in English, which they didn't understand at all & then get all freaked out when they didn’t mind.  The lifeguards could never or wouldn't adjust although we tried to get them to lighten up.  Each year we made announcements about the pool rules every time we met with LABO kids & tutors would translate, but still a lot of kids didn’t get it.

     Something that drove the LABO camp volunteers adults crazy was the way Japanese boys and girls would go to each other’s rooms at night in the cabins to talk.  Sometimes  group leaders like Patrick & Jason had been to Japan on the LABO exchange and would try and tell the adults that at LABO Camps in Japan the kids were always in each others rooms and it was OK, there wasn't going to be any hanky panky like American adults worried about.  I overheard one exasperated  high school girl tell her mother one year, "Mom, they don't even know what SEX is!"  After a few years the adults began to listen and we quit driving the boys out of the girls room and girls  out of the boys rooms & we never had a problem. We even got to the point we would go into the rooms & visit with kids & tutors & have a good time.

Larry & Paul help make LABO buttons

    The last morning of LABO camp was always a hustle & bustle.  The counties that were hosting  LABO kids would come to pick them up.  Some were from western Kansas so they would have to drive for several hours.  We were to  have the kids suitcases outside in county groups before breakfast, after breakfast they were to stand in their county group.  Of course the Japanese didn't see any reason for this so suitcases would still be in the cabins, often unpacked.   Or the kids would be in another county group talking to a friend because they weren't going to see them for weeks.  I, the old  Army Sgt., rode close herd on the county group the Paxson family was in charge of, I had Mary, Patrick & Jason  help make sure kids & suitcase’s were in the right place at all times. Our groups were always the first one loaded, long before any others.   One year a Western Kansas County group stopped a chartered bus at a rest stop on I-70 going home.   The Japanese kids had never seen so much open space so after using the restroom they started running across the pasture.  It took over two hours to get them all rounded up and back on the bus. 

    For two years Larry & Mary served as County Coordinators and we had Japanese kids come to Sumner County. It was really a job recruiting Host Families.  Most of the hosts the first year were also hosts the 2nd year.  We had county events for the LABO Kids &their families.  One year we had a picnic at Lake Afton & visited the Observatory.  My sister Arlene & her son Matt hosted a boy named Takashi.  We hosted a boy Patrick's age named Takuma.  He thought we treated Patrick terrible because we bought Jason new clothes and things & treated Jason the same as Patrick.  He was the oldest boy in his family and in Japan the oldest son got all the new things and special treatment and the younger brothers got all his hand-me-downs.

      

Parmar's first snow, snowman & snowball fight

HOSTING PARMAR-----One year Mary & I got a call from the State 4-H office asking us to host an IFYE from India.  He had been at two families &  both families had ask the State Office to place him with another family.   He would tell them he wanted to run for political office when he got back to India & wanted a gun for protection, &  it would be much easier to get one in the U.S. than in India. This got  his previous families all shook up.  Having been to India I understood, everything he was saying was true and valid.  We or I was hesitant. The drawback I saw was I was working at the CO-OP so Mary would have to take him to visit places, in India he would usually be in the company of men.  But we decided to host Parmar. He did go to work with me at the CO-OP a day or two to  see how a CO-OP operated but mostly I saw him of a night & on weekends.

    He did bring up  buying a gun several times. I said I understood, and I did.  I had stayed with families involved in politics & they had guns for protection, however  the State 4-H office  warned us  and said not to help him get one.    My excuse was when he went through U.S. or India customs it might be confiscated.  A good one was to suggest he call the State 4-H office to check into the legalities of taking a gun through customs.  This always was a stopper.  After awhile the subject never came up & we had a good time with Parmar.

Mary & Maria having a 'Girl' chat when I snapped
their picture

      MARIA FROM PANAMA---After hosting  Parmar I wanted to host a female IFYE, I always suspected Mary encountered akward things hosting Parmar she never told me about, I wanted an IFYE she could really enjoy and relate too.  We got Maria Lopez from Panama.  Even today in 2009 as I write this we get e-mails from Maria.  Mary got to take her to ladies church meetings & meetings of organizations in which she was involved.   Mary and Maria had a great time together and had lots of opportunity to talk and get to know each other.  As a family we took her to the Sedgwick County Zoo, to Lawrence to visit Mary's sister Helen and see points of interest in Lawrence, Ks, we took her roller skating, something she had never done. We really enjoyed having Maria as a part of our family and it was a great time.  A time of many memories.