Everything she had previously believed in suddenly fell apart.
Being a "family member," "cultural exchange," "travelling"—everything turned out to be just empty promises.
Lisa sobbed for a long time, sitting in the middle of a corn field. She knew that no one heard her when she was in the corn fields. It was the only place she could go. She sat down in the tall field and cried. She didn't want to give up her dreams. She may have been wrong about this family, but that didn't mean she was wrong about everything. There was still hope and she was going to find it.
Suddenly she realized that she did not want to give up her dream of travelling. She wanted to go to Paris. She had saved every dollar she could. She might be able to buy a ticket. It was nothing more than a day dream. She knew that she was obligated to a legally binding contract. She had to stay for the entire year. She was all alone in a foreign country. She only had herself to blame for her circumstances.
Besides, she still had to collect the money for the return ticket. For that purpose, Lisa had to work a year.
But she was no longer the candid, cheerful and naive Lisa that everyone knew before.
She was all alone in a foreign country. She only had herself to blame for her circumstances. And only she herself was responsible for her life.
21
Lisa wanted to put together a nice ad, looking for a new host family. She would be happy to leave this one behind. After the host family found out she wanted to leave, they begun to treat her poorly. Lisa was surfing the internet one evening when Nick came downstairs.
"What are you doing?" He asked sharply.
"I'm looking for something," she answered indirectly. Nick shook his head.
"You're stealing our internet. You have to pay for access to the internet."
"I want to write my parents." She tried to explain.
Nick shook his head again.
"We don't care. You're in our house and everything here belongs to us. That includes the internet. You're not allowed to use it anymore unless you're going to pay us."
The next day, Lisa had no more access to the internet. She wasn't sure if Nick had done something, or the host parents had disabled the computer from going online. That evening, Lisa spoke to Clara about the issue.
"I don't have access to the internet anymore. How can I write to my mother?" she asked.
Clara shrugged.
"Well, you can come into our office to write your daily letter. Ten minutes should be enough to write a short email, right?" she suggested.
Lisa shook her head.
"You can always use the internet at my parents' house while you're there. Or, head into town. I mean, you don't have any free time when you're here anyway," Clara added.
Lisa was speechless. Allowing her access to the internet wasn't costing them anything. It was a basic human right for most people. She needed access to the internet to write her family and friends. It was her only connection to the outside world. It was also the only way she was going to find a new host family. She suspected that was why Clara had taken away her access. Someone must have checked the history on the computer. They would have seen she was looking for a new host family.
Lisa was given an entire day off shortly after. She decided to go into town and find an internet cafe to use. It took her seven hours on the bicycle to get into the nearest town. All she had on her were a few apples from the garden and a bottle of water. She went through five different villages, looking for an internet cafe. At each station, she asked where she could find one. There were none.
Finally, Lisa was allowed to use the family computer for twenty minutes a day. It was the only time she was able to get on the internet. After the holidays, Lisa spoke to the agency overseeing her stay. They agreed to publish an ad on her behalf, seeking another host family. Over the next few days, Lisa got varied responses. There were four that stood out to her the most.
Family 1:Four children. Tasks: cooking, ironing, looking after children, cleaning, washing.
Lisa wondered how much time she would ever get to herself. It wasn't that she had a lot of time where she was, but that was something she was hoping to change. She wanted to be able to go sight-seeing, and learn the local language. She wanted to experience the rich culture that was so vastly different from her own. With all the tasks she had been given, she hardly had the chance to even finish her language book.
Family 2:
A nature-loving family. Besides three children they had two horses, cows, pigs, goats, two dogs, three cats,and a rabbit.
There, her duties included taking care of all of the farm animals. She would also get to work in the garden, and out in the field. There, she would be keeping care of the flowers and home grown vegetables. Lisa enjoyed the outdoors very much, and strongly considered this a good choice. Even though it would be a lot of work.
Family 3:
Eight children. But Lisa had to worry about only three of them.
Now, Lisa had her doubts about that. The three she would be responsible for were younger, the other five old enough to care for themselves. She was a generous person, and she knew if any of the children asked her for something, she'd want to answer to them. That might get complicated with that many people to look after. She couldn't begin to imagine the chores she might be tasked with. The dishes alone would be overwhelming.
Family 4:
A singlefather who works as a farmer in the village and three boys. Tasks:cooking and taking care of the three kids.
This single father needed the kind of help that a mother would provide. Along with housework, she might have to help the boys with other things, such as homework, even though she knew very little herself. She knew that farming was long, and hard. He would likely want dinner on the table when he got home, and the house in spotless condition. The boys bathed, and ready for bed by a certain time. She felt she was too young to be taking on the responsibilities of someone'smother.
Lisa shook her head, closing down the computer. Now that she had read through the responses completely, she felt discouraged. She softly started crying. Was this the best she was going to get? Was she going to be stuck in this house, with this family, for the rest of her stay? How was she going to keep living like this? She wiped her eyes on the back of her hand, and picked up the phone. She called the man from the agency for the second time this week. They made small talk, at first. He asked if things had been any better. He was sad to hear that they weren't. She wasn't settling in, and she knew she wasn't going to.
“I'd like to live with a family from a big city.” She requested, halfway through their conversation.