8. Culture Shock (age 11-12)

We arrived at my grandparents' farm on the outskirts of the small town of Jerome, Idaho, in December. The farm was fabulous, even in the dead of winter. There were cows, pigs, sheep, chickens, and my grandmother's fluffy cats, Pumpkin and Dinah. I loved sitting on the stile, talking to the cows and seeing how far I could spit. The sheep had been named after us grandkids, which made it devastating to us when we were later told that they'd been sent to slaughter.

Not long after we arrived, we piled into my grandparents' car and drove out to Cathedral Pines, a beautiful Baptist Camp in Central Idaho. There I got to meet dozens of relatives that I didn't even know I had at a huge, week-long, family reunion. I also got to go cross country skiing and snowmobiling for the first time. We had a blast building snowmen and having snowball fights with our cousins and then warming up around the fireplace in the center of the dining hall, while singing songs. I fell in love with the beautiful pine trees and pristine snow, and I've longed to return ever since.

When the reunion was over, we returned to Jerome and moved from the farm into a modern little house in a middle class subdivision in town. My aunt and uncle owned the house, which they had lived in before they built the huge, gorgeous house they now lived in on their huge ranch. Right after we moved in, Mom took us to our new school where we were tested for grade placement. In Honduras, the school year was opposite of the U.S. So, when I had moved to Honduras in the middle of 2nd grade in Utah, it was the beginning of the school year in Honduras. So, I'd started 2nd grade over there. I left Honduras just after completing 5th grade there, but I tested well enough to jump into the middle of 6th grade in Idaho. I owe that to the many hours my mom spent with me at her work, drilling me on English spelling, vocabulary and such.

My first few weeks of school, I was the center of attention. Everyone was fascinated by my accent and wanted me to "say something in Spanish" or tell them all about Honduras. One day someone asked me what kind of music I liked, which totally caught me off guard. I knew little of American music, and nothing about genres. I'd heard of Country music and thought that might be popular around there (most of them did live "out in the country" on farms, after all), so I answered "country". I believe the kid's face almost turned green, like they were gonna puke, and they walked away. After that the novelty of "the girl from Honduras" wore off, and only 3 friends remained: Charlotte, who had gorgeous brown hair and mischievous green eyes, Tiffany, who was a scrawny and rambunctious four-eyes, and D.J. who had long, blonde hair that was so coarse that it reminded me of a horse's maine. Our favorite playground activities were monkey bars and tetherball, which we played very agressively.

I had a lot to learn about rural American culture. I was invited to a sleepover at Charlotte's beautiful farmhouse, and she taught me all about 4H Club and proudly showed me all of her ribbons and trophies. Then D.J. had a sleepover, and I learned that "Let's TP the Jones' tree" meant "Let's cover the Jones' tree in toilet paper at night and then run like hell so that no one catches us." I heard a lot of kids at school hollering "Stick it!" at each other but didn't have a clue what it meant until one day when Tiffany replied to some rude boy "Up yours! It fits better!" When I realized what it meant, I had mixed feelings. I felt embarassed to be hanging with such foul-mouthed kids, since I'd never uttered a bad word because of my solid Christian upbringing. Yet I also admired Tiffany for her witty response.

I struggled some academically that year, trying to get caught up in all subjects. In the process, I made a startling discovery. As I was silently working a math problem one day, I realized that I was actually thinking the numbers in Spanish. So, for example, if the problem was twenty times three, I'd think "veinte por tres" as I worked on the solution of the problem. After that, I started deliberately thinking through math problems in English. Though I didn't do well in 6th grade, I passed.

7. Big Changes (age 11)

Alfredo's kids rarely joined us on our excursions. So, when his 2 sons came with us on a long drive to a small town one day, my sister and I were surprised and annoyed that we had to squeeze into the small back seat of the car with these boys. They were having burping contests and making farting sounds with their hands, armpits, mouths, and any other way they could. Their only form of entertainment on the drive was trying to make my sis and me puke, and they nearly succeeded. I think that what saved us was that 100 degree weather and no air conditioning meant that all windows has to be rolled down, giving us fresh air continually.

We made it to a quaint little town that had a gorgeous water fountain at the center of a city park. Mom and Alfredo left us kids to play at the park while they went into a building. As we played at the park, I started to see another side to the boys and started crushing on Ricardo, who was just a few months younger than I. By the time Mom and Alfredo came back out, I was so fixated on Ricardo that I hardly noticed that our parents were acting funny.

On the long drive home, I sat by Ricardo and we eventually ended up holding hands. That night we played hide-and-seek with the neighbors in my huge back yard, and as Ricardo and I hid together in the dark, we kissed. We were 11 years old and hadn't really thought through the fact that our parents were dating. Or maybe we just didn't take them seriously because they'd broken up so many times. All we knew was that we were in love.

So, when we were told the next week that my mother was taking my sis and me back to the U.S., we were devastated. My mom explained that it was becoming too dangerous there, especially for Americans. There had been bombings, and just a week or two after we left, our night watchman was killed in our neighborhood.

So, just a couple of weeks after our first kiss, Ricardo and I said goodbye to each other at the airport, and my Mom and sis and I boarded our plane. I was trying hard not to cry when my mother said, "I guess I can tell you my secret now!" She looked like she would simply bust if she didn't. She said, "Do you remember that little trip we went on a couple of weeks ago with Alfredo and the boys?" We nodded, anxious to find out what she was so excited about. "When we were in that building while you waited for us, we got married!" My stomach did a flip and my heart skipped a beat as I realized that I had kissed my STEP BROTHER!