Sepia Saturday: The Summer Games

Sepia Saturday challenges bloggers to share family history through old photographs.

This week’s Sepia Saturday prompt of a man concentrating on a game of chess reminds me how games once helped bridge the conversation gap between our family and a summer visitor.

In the summer of 1993, our family joined 31 other families in Chesapeake and Portsmouth to host 32 foreign exchange students from Spain. Even though my daughters were much younger than the 15-17 year-olds who would be visiting Virginia, I thought this would be an educational addition to our summer plans. Besides, my girls were just starting to study Spanish in school, so the opportunity to practice the language would surely be a bonus.

Weeks before the students arrived, we exchanged letters. I was encouraged by our student’s beautiful handwriting and strong writing skills. Granted, hers wasn’t “perfect English,” but it was clear enough to boost my confidence that six weeks with a Spanish teen would go fairly easily. After all, she had been studying English for over three years. 

Zoe, Wendy, Jordan waiting for Iratxe

On the day of arrival, all the families waited in the parking lot for the bus that was transporting our guests from Dulles to Hampton Roads. It was a festive sight as everyone came with flowers and balloons of welcome. We all cheered as 32 backpack-laden teens bounded down the steps, thrilled by the reception. With clip-board and pen in hand, the coordinator quickly matched student to family.

As soon as we saw Iratxe, we were struck by her clothes and exotic look. She had maroon hair – fairly common today – but in 1993, that seemed so unusual and very European.

Iratxe from Guernica, Spain

Iratxe was struck by the heat.  It was a hot and humid day, very typical for Hampton Roads. A nice ride in an air conditioned car would solve that problem while giving us time to get acquainted. But that’s when all of us had a reality check. We could not understand a word Iratxe said. It was not a problem of accent. It was the pitch of her voice. It was her pronunciation. What was worse was that she did not understand us either.

Suddenly I could not get enough air as panic set in. How would we manage six long weeks of THIS?

from Flickr

Fortunately, kids are kids, and they discovered a way to BE together. Cards. The game of UNO was the perfect first step in breaking the language barrier. In fact, the game is even marketed as a game that works across cultures and languages. The rules of play were easy to say in just a word or two or by demonstration. It seemed that a day did not go by that Iratxe was not roped into a game of UNO.

As communication problems lessened, they graduated to other card games like Rummy. 

Zoe, Jordan, Iratxe playing Rummy

Of course, our summer with Iratxe was more than just card games. We showed her the local attractions, like Jamestown.  

Jordan challenged the blacksmith to a game
resembling horseshoes while Iratxe observed (far right)

We had already planned a trip to Canada as well, so we were glad to take her along. What an exceptional opportunity for Iratxe to see so much of America and Canada. We drove from Virginia to Pennsylvania, to New York, and on to Toronto. What did Iratxe see? The inside of her eyelids. The girl slept every time we got in the car.

When we stopped for meals or a break, we rejuvenated with a game of Frisbee.

Iratxe, Jordan, Zoe, Barry playing with a soft Frisbee
in a park in a Chinese neighborhood in Toronto

Shuffleboard table in our lake house

Our final stop in Ontario was Gananoque to tour the 1000 Islands. It was at our hotel there that we were introduced to the game of table shuffleboard. Off the restaurant was a pub with bar, pool tables, darts, and shuffleboard. There was never a question about what to do at night – we were at that shuffleboard table.

By the end of Iratxe’s visit, her English had improved dramatically. On her last day with us, she confessed that she was mortified at how bad her English was just a few weeks before. In Spain her grades in English were good, and she thought she was speaking well. She even revealed that she would sit in her bedroom, planning what she would say to us and then practicing before coming downstairs to be with us. How sad is that!

I can’t help thinking that the games we played in those early days made it easy for Iratxe to “fit in” when she felt so terribly alone and apart.

Memories of the fun we had as a family plus one prompted us to purchase a shuffleboard table for our vacation home.  When our girls come to spend time at Smith Mountain Lake, Iratxe will not be there to show off her skills at knocking her opponent’s puck into the sawdust, but I am sure we will recall how much fun we had with Iratxe in the summer of ’93.

If you’re game, please visit Sepia Saturday to see what my friends are playing today.
 

© 2015, Wendy Mathias.  All rights reserved.