By Ward Peck

Editor

“Hi! I am Martino! I’m a quite and little shy type but tidy! I like
happiness and I love America! I prefer living my life doing beautiful
and entertaining experiences,” writes Martino, 17.

“I think I am so lively, perky, smart and I love children and other
teenagers. So I am not a boring girl in fact I talk very much and I
don’t ever have the time for finish my adventures to my friends,”
writes Gea, 15. “I like meeting with them at the cinema, or in my town
to go out together. I’d be forever with them without my parents and
mainly without my brother that is 16, but I don’t like because we are
totally different. He is tidy, shy, precise and I’m his opposite.”

“I’ve got a lot of interests; first of all I like to go abroad, there I
passes magic moments that I will remember for the rest of my life,
writes Veronica, 18. “Then I spend my free time with my friends going
to the cinema and shopping in the most popular streets of Rome. When I
find time I read some books, and two of them where written in English.
I spend also times on computer especially on the program called MSN,
that it’s a sort of chat where I can ‘meet’ my friends of school.”

These young Italian children are not looking for pen pals. The above
quotations were taken from applications the children submitted as part
of the EF Educational Homestay program (www.efhomestay.org) to spend
part of their summer living in the United States and learning about the
culture. Their English may not be perfect, but their enthusiasm needs
little translation.

According to Andrew Roy, a teacher at Portland’s Lincoln Middle School
and a South Portland resident, these children are just three of 30
young adults from Italy ranging from 14 to 18 years old who will take
part in the local program. Roy is working as the Portland program
coordinator. Each of them needs a host family that is willing and able
to open their home and drive them to and from the program headquarters
in Portland each day.

Skye Luce, New England manager for the EF Homestay program said the
host family provides more than just a bed for these young adults. Luce
said it is in the home environment that the English language comes
alive and allows young adults to hear it in the context of everyday
experience. She said host families and visitors alike often benefit
from the cross-pollination of cultural experience

The children will spend the mornings learning English and taking trips
and engaging in cultural activities in the afternoon, Roy said. He
added that the group is scheduled to visit Boston and New York during
their time here as well.

While the children are scheduled to arrive in Maine on July 22, the
program is still looking for potential host families, Roy said.

Potential host families are encouraged to contact Roy and fill out an
application. Once the application is approved, Roy and his colleagues
will work with the family to match them with the child whose interests
and temperament best aligns with their own.

To learn more, contact Roy at 649-1166.