Hello Everyone! We heard from Troy this morning. He described his home stay as "amazing." Troy was busy teaching 2 boys how to play poker! (I bet the host family really likes him now) Troy and the two boys went to school yesterday for a short while. Troy was comparing the NZ school with his fairly new one in Olathe, and he thought the NZ school was nicer!! (That says a lot because all the schools in this area are really nice.) Then they took him to a gorge and walked across 4 swinging rope bridges and then went into some caves that were "really cool." A giant gold mine in the city of Waihi was their next stop. He talked about the gold and silver flecks in the rocks and how they make gold/silver bars. Troy said his host family was really nice. The father was the CEO of his own company, of course Troy didn't ask what he did!! "I wish we could stay here longer!" (He was experiencing real everyday life with this family and didn't want to leave!) Last night, the dad was showing his boys where Troy lived in the USA, so they logged onto googleearth and zoomed in on our house! Troy and the boys did play rugby at school, and the funny thing is - their local team was called the "Chiefs!!" Driving on the left side of the road was very different too. Every time Troy said he got into their car, he felt he should be grabbing the steering wheel; and turning corners was odd because he thought they were going to hit the other cars.Troy also mentioned the PTP kids were with families all from the same school, so they were able to see each other again. Most of the boys were paired up for the stays, but the girls were sent in groups of three. Troy was sent alone, but had absolutely NO problems.
It was great to hear from him again. Rest assured all - the kids are having a blast!!
Brake Family
8 comments:
Oh my gosh, thank you so much for the update on the "group" situation. Knowing the girls are not alone in their home stays is a relief. The home stay was really the "only" thing that Maddy was nervous about. So, I'm glad to know their doing this in groups, except for Troy, but it looks like he was assigned a wonderful family! Also knowing they were able to see each other at the school in NZ is great!
Of course, I am living vicariously through all of YOU, as we still haven't heard a word from Maddy! I have no intentions of calling her, so I will continue to live through your children's experiences via phone and email conversations that you've had with them and hope that Maddy has done her work of taking good journaling notes and great pictures so she can tell us all about it when she returns!! :0)
Thanks for continuting to keep us all posted!
Melisa Gum
AJ is by himself too I believe. He too went to an old mine and a working mine. He thought that was cool too.
Kathy Flood
It seems like Sarah said the P2P group got together yesterday (maybe with the host family kids but she didn't say) and went to the mine and on the nature walk.
Melissa, our first two conversations with Sarah were calls we made to her and she did seem very busy and distracted and I think she would have been happy to talk to us on her time when she was ready. We probably should have waited for her to call also.
Yea! That is all great news! We still haven't heard from Kaylen. I wonder how many other kids have not called or emailed? Maybe we should do a poll. ;-)
I was reading some of the comments from previous postings...we ordered our phone cards from PTP and Troy has not had any problems.
We are really happy people are enjoying the blogging. This is a great way to share info!!!!!
Keep it coming! :)
Brake Family
we got 2 calls from Abby when they were still in the states and she sounded a bit annoyed (at first) when we called he this past weekend, although she did seem to get over it a bit and tell us of the snake incident (which we elected not to pass on at the time since there was really no harm done and we decided not to panic anyone's parents). We've heard nothing else.
Pam...
Don't feel alone. Matt has only sent one very short e-mail in response to my long fax, and e-mails from his brother and myself. The most contact I've received was from his host family. I figure he's having a great time and is incredibly busy. I'd be thinking he was really homesick if I was having to re-charge that phone card. I hope he decides to use it at least once while gone though. Hearing from everyone's kids helps so much.
One more comment from the Gum family. I'm so glad that I'm not the only parent not hearing from their kids.
We didn't order our phone card from P2P....guess that was one mistake on my part. I do my part by calling and getting all information for Maddy and had it written down for her.....who knows. I'm hoping that they all make it home healthy, safe and full of stories and memories!
Thanks for all the updates! Melisa
Post a Comment