New City, New School, New Angel
By Host Moms
August 21, 2020
To have the opportunity of moving to a new country or city, has been for our families a unique and unrepeatable experience. Although there are difficult moments, without a doubt, there are more advantages.
As a family you learn to be flexible, to adapt, to detach yourself, to know new ways of thinking and understand that we are all bond to individual contexts and circumstances. Each city is a new opportunity to reinvent yourself, but also a family challenge to find new friends and new routines.
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As part of this experience we both met at our last stop. We coincided in that hotel where new families meet or wish farewell; that place that is your home for one, two or three months while you wait for your moving van. We became friends over spirituous afternoons, sharing our experiences of arriving to a new culture and telling hometown stories; we believe the latter is the most difficult transition.
Although many companies hire relocation services to help families find their way in the city, rent a house, and choose a school, there is always an emotional part that can only be comforted by a kind soul, with a genuine interest in helping you, opening her heart to listen to your situation and help you with things that you fear at that moment are irrelevant to others. A person who helps you calm your mind overwhelmed with so much new information. Because a mother who feels accompanied can transmit peace to a husband with a new job; to children in a new school, and to her home without stability that is composed of rented spaces and restaurant food on a daily basis.
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This is how during one of those afternoons over a cup of wine, we thought it would be great if that angel could come to our lives not just by chance... what if someone introduced you to that angel who would accompany you upon arrival and until you felt safe to walk by yourself?
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After a few months in our school, we proposed creating the current Host Moms Committee composed of angels assigned to help you as you would help a friend, moms with a kind heart, that appreciate differences, and are willing to open their homes and share their friends. At first we thought that the international moms would be the most benefited, however, we realized that local moms also needed help in their first birthday party, in which they had no one to sit with, or that we could look after that shy child that does not know anyone else yet.
Today we thank more than 40 mothers who have made this program possible which has touched the hearts of many families. Although this is a silent responsibility, it fills our souls with the greatest satisfaction when listening to the words “thank you for being my angel".
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We are excited to know that this program is already a reality and that it is an important part of a school that seeks community and integration among families.
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By Jasmine Fernández & Claudia Triana
