Deyra Moves to the Dorms!

I, of course, have been meaning to write for a month but never got around to it. I am the world’s biggest procrastinator and since writing this blog has no deadline, I never do it. We also didn’t really have anything interesting happen. Deyra mostly stayed in her room and declined to go places with us. She did, surprisingly, go to a local minor league soccer game with us. She talked on the phone for most of the game, but said that she had fun. On Mother’s Day, Deyra was very sweet and gave me a bouquet of silk flowers that she had put together. She also gave, my mom, sister, mother-in-law, and me cards. She never signs cards or writes anything on them so Kevin’s mom made her sign her name on the card so that she could remember her. Last week, Deyra moved into the dorms. We took her to Walmart the week before so that she could buy all of the things that she needed. She barely had enough money because she uses all of her money to eat fast food and buy junk food. Deyra said that some of her classmates had to move in a day later than everyone else because they literally had no money and had to wait until they got paid the beginning of June! I think they need a class on money management! Deyra moved into the dorms on June 1st. I felt kind of bad because it was a Friday and Kevin and I both had parties to go to that evening so it was very rushed. We took her to the dorms and helped her fill out all of the forms (waivers, damage forms, etc.). Her roommate had not filled out her room checklist, I think because she did not understand the questions, so we helped her too. I showed them how to work the air conditioner and then we unloaded all of her stuff and left hoping that she could figure out everything else. We told her to call if she needed anything or wanted to hang out. Deyra’s new roommate is from Haiti and doesn’t speak Spanish so that will be good for both of them to practice English. Deyra said that her roommate is the lowest English speaker in their group, and Deyra is pretty low as well so this should be interesting! Yesterday, Kevin and I were at dinner talking about Deyra and how we hadn’t heard from her since she moved into the dorms. We decided to call her after dinner and literally a minute later she sent me a text asking if we could take her to church in the morning. I of course said yes and we picked her up this morning. She told us that the dorms are good, but that her classmates stay up until 2:00 AM and won’t let her sleep either. Deyra generally went to bed at 8:30 or 9:00 PM when she lived with us and said that she is tired all the time now. She told us that they are going on a trip to Sacramento next weekend, but didn’t really know the details or why they were going. She said that they were going to “see one building”. When we asked her if it was the capital, she said “maybe”. We are getting together with my family for Father’s Day next Sunday and she said that she wanted to go if she was back in time. I’ll continue to write if we spent time with Deyra, but my entries will probably be less frequent.

Deyra's First Easter in the U.S.

So it’s been awhile again…I really suck at blogging! We’ve been gone a lot the past month so Deyra has been getting lots of English practice with other people. She also went to some kind of fair (she really doesn’t tell us anything and we found out about it from the director of her program) where she showed her goat from her Animal Science class. She always told us how terrible her goat was and that it did not like to walk or listen. Apparently she was wrong because she received first place at the show! We’re still not entirely sure what the show entailed but it lasted the entire weekend and she said that she had fun.

I was out of town for a week for work so Deyra hung out with Kevin and my sister Laurie while I was gone. Laurie made the two of them dinner one night and said that she had never heard Deyra talk so much, and in English to boot! The next week, Kevin and I went to Florida for a wedding. Deyra stayed with our friend Grace the first weekend and according to her, the highlights of the weekend were going to Walmart and McDonalds. She then stayed with Kevin’s parents during the week. She didn’t really have much to say about her stay there, just that the food was very different the food that I make (she was probably excited to eat meat and not salad everyday). The last weekend that we were gone, Deyra stayed with my mom. She went to the high school musical which she said that she enjoyed even though she did not understand it, and learned how to make pancakes. Deyra said that she had a good time and spoke lots of English. She, of course, immediately reverted to Spanish as soon as we got home…I don’t know about that girl.

I think that Deyra’s first Easter in the US was a success! On Friday, we went to Kevin’s parents’ cabin in Kings Canyon National Park. There was a little snow and Deyra was excited to play in it. She had been to the park with her class and seen snow but she said that there was very little then and they didn’t really play in it. She even went sledding! She was a little leery at first but finally agreed to go as long as I rode with her. She said that she liked it. Deyra and our nephew, Tristan, also went on an Easter egg hunt in the snow. She had never heard of an Easter egg hunt and seemed to have fun. I had never seen an Easter egg hunt in the snow before!

On Sunday, we went to church and Deyra helped Laurie and I hide the Easter eggs for the children to hunt. She had a good time doing it. She also seemed to enjoy all of the candy…she walked around to the empty tables after breakfast at church and put all of the candy that was on them in her pockets! I think that she had gone through withdrawals during Lent since I gave up junk food and didn’t make any brownies! We then went to Russell and Laurie’s new house and ate lots of food. Deyra actually hung out with everyone and talked rather than sitting in the corner silently like she normally does. I think that she really likes my mom and feels more comfortable around her. Deyra spent most of the day hugging her and hanging on her, I’ve never seen her do that with anyone else. All in all, it was a success!

Deyra Gets a Computer

Since around Christmas, Deyra has been obsessed with getting a computer. She looked at them at Walmart when she stayed with our friend Grace. I told her that she should probably get a computer at a better quality store and dropped her off at Best Buy while I got my hair cut. Deyra talked to a worker there (in Spanish much to her delight) and he told her that she would need a crazy warranty and all kinds of other extras. This scared her because it was going to be very expensive. I explained to Deyra that sales people want to sell you everything that they can and to disregard much of their advice. I explained that a two or more year warranty would not serve her as she would be back in Nicaragua with nowhere to take her broken computer. After our talk, Deyra was relieved and ready to get a computer.

I told Deyra about ads that come out in the Sunday paper and gave her some for electronics stores. She asked me questions about some of the computers which I, of course, could not answer. When Kevin came home, she asked him and he spent a long time talking to her about computers and what she wanted to use it for.

Deyra told us that she wanted a computer to use the internet and we explained that we do not have internet at our house. She said that she had heard about a portable internet device and when I told her how much it costs per month, she quickly changed her mind. We asked her why else she wanted a computer and she said just to have one and she would keep it in the box until she moved to the dorms where she would be able to use internet. Kevin explained to her that computers are constantly changing and becoming better and that it did not make sense to buy a computer if she was not going to use it for six months. Deyra decided that she would wait to get a computer. Her only qualm was that she had the money now and may spend it before she bought a computer if she did not buy one now. I suggested that she stop buying junk food and continue to save her money for a computer.

Then the new semester began…Deyra now has homework that has to be typed up. She decided that she needs a computer so that she does not have to go to the computer lab all the time. She expected me to take her to Fresno to buy a computer the day that she told me she needed one. I told her that she would have to wait until I had the free time to take her to Fresno (45 minutes away) and spend a couple of hours there.

Deyra would look through the ads each week and arbitrarily choose a computer. She could never give a reason why and it was often the most expensive computer when cheaper ones had the same features. We would talk to her about the reason for her choice and go over the similarities of the cheaper computers and she would change her mind.

After a few weeks, we took Deyra to Best Buy before a soccer game. She was very excited. It was quite an experience…

We asked her as we walked in the store if she knew what she wanted. She said, “Yes, a Sony.” We asked her why a Sony and she replied, “Because the guys (her friends in the SEED program) say it’s the best.” Both Kevin and I tried explaining to her (in Spanish so she understood) that it is better to buy a computer for the features rather than the brand, but she would have none of it because her friends told her Sony was the way to go. We also tried to explain that her friends have never had computers before and don’t know very much about them. She said, “No, they have computers now” and didn’t care that we have years of experience. So she picked out the least expensive Sony, didn’t even care what the specifications were, and declared herself done. Kevin showed her a different brand computer that was exactly the same but $100 cheaper, but she wasn’t interested. So she bought her Sony. I at least convinced her to get a case for it.

Turns out she knows nothing about computers as expected and could not even figure out how to work it! She of course never asked us for help since she has returned to spending all her time in her bedroom, and only told us when we asked her about her computer. She is supposedly talking to her friends and they are going to show her how to work it. We suggested that she ask her adviser about buying Office since she needs that to do her homework. As of yet, she has not done that and still has no idea how to use her computer…but she has a Sony!

Deyra in 2012!

Once again it’s been awhile…what can I say, I’m a procrastinator by nature and with a blog there’s no deadline! We’ve of course been very busy as usual. Deyra’s English is steadily improving but she still can’t really have a conversation. She still generally talks to me in Spanish but seems to talk to everyone else in English. She is making more of an effort now, perhaps because of the little incident we had right before New Year’s Eve.

Deyra had asked if she could eat with some friends from Nicaragua. I said fine and asked her to call me during the day and tell me when and where she needed to be picked up since she did not know beforehand (she was already in Reedley volunteering during the day). She never called and I finally called her at 4:00 or so. Deyra still reported to know nothing and was very vague. She asked me if “las chicas” could spend the night because they couldn’t stay in the dorms and I told her that she needed to give more notice if she wanted someone to spend the night (we’re working on not asking for things at the very last minute). To make a long story shorter, Deyra never called me, I got mad and called her around 6:00, a host mom explained that some girls from another SEED program were coming and when/where Deyra needed to be picked up.

Needless to say, I was a little upset about Deyra’s lack of communication. We had spoken in Spanish the entire time so she really had no excuses. Both Kevin and I talked to her about it the next day and explained that she needs to tell us what is going on (like that people were coming from out of town, I thought that it was just local kids and that she wanted them to spend the night) ahead of time. I also talked to her about spending all of her time in her room and never speaking English. Deyra told me that she spent all of her time in Nicaragua in her room (in a one room house with at least five other people?) and that she didn’t know that it was weird.

Our little talk seemed to have worked because Deyra spent the rest of Christmas vacation hanging out with us in the living room. She even went to our friends Jon and Sarah’s house with us for New Year’s Eve and stayed up late talking to people. Deyra now asks us to take her places well in advance of the night before like she used to and comes with us when we go out.

Deyra on New Year's Eve

One of the other host parents had all of the first year students over at the beginning of January and they all made gingerbread houses. Deyra really enjoyed this and had her house on display for weeks. Every time a candy would fall off, she would stick it back on until we finally told her it had to go before it started decomposing.

I was gone a couple of weekends ago and she asked Kevin is she could have a friend over. Of course, three friends came but they had a good time. Kevin was a very good dad and taught them to play Yahtzee, made them fresh squeezed orange juice, and watched a movie with them. He said that they had a photo shoot complete with the cats and a stuffed bear!

Deyra with two of the girls that came over

Deyra is taking a couple of animal science classes and came home the other day talking about what a good day she had. She told me that she got to draw blood from a cow’s tale and that it was something she had never done before. She seems to be enjoying her classes for the most part. She’s taking aerobics and volleyball for PE and is having a little trouble with those, especially volleyball. Deyra almost dropped it, but decided to hang in there. She’s never had to take a real PE class before and says that they are hard and she is tired afterwards.

Next up: Deyra gets a computer!