Worries about my Host Family

What am I excited about?

I love the Latin culture and I think living with a host family will allow me to get a full dose of the cultural experience.  In Chile I got a limited perspective, I never lived with a family and my role as a missionary caused boundaries that prevented me from experiencing all the aspects of their culture.  For example the reactivity to me as a church representative was very different from what it will be as a student. 

The idea of full immersion in their culture is exciting to me. For example I like the idea of only having the option of eating Mexican food for breakfast, lunch and dinner. I look forward to having long conversations with my host family about their lives and their day to day experiences. I know in the Latin culture they say thinks more bluntly and more openly express their feelings, and I’m excited to in kind of society. Also America has a formal etiquette that is different than that of Mexico; for example, you don’t need to take off your shoes before entering a house and entering front door of a small store it’s curious to greet the store owner. Mexico has its own rules of etiquette and those rules are always interesting to learn about and follow.  

What worries me?

Of all the things that could worry me, danger or theft are the farthest down my list. What really scares me is adapting to their culture of homemaking. On my mission in Chile, we were in charge of our own houses, but with a host family I must respect their culture. I like tidiness and deep cleaning doesn’t bother me. I don’t not mind cleaning our under the frig or scrubbing the floor with a sponge, I like to clean. I know that I have to be careful there not to offend my host mother. I’m nervous I will cross the bounds of what is appropriate for guests. 

I learned in class I follow a very monochromic time system, while the Latin culture is very polychromic. I like to schedule thing out and judge the success of my day but how well I completed my to-do list. I am scared at times my personal habit of sticking to a schedule will clash with their people focused system. It I look through their eyes, I can see how it can be offensive for someone to place activities or plans over people, but sometimes that’s what we do. One example that comes to mind is that I’m sure they will want me there for their big lunches in the afternoon, but I might have to travel a lot to visit the high schools and it might be very impractical to return to eat with my host family.  I guess my greatest fear is offending my host family after they do so much to serve and care for me.