26
—Lancaster Farming, Saturday, February 10, 1973
$
•M
Maria Villafranca
AFS - Cultural Living Experience
It takes a lot of love and un
derstanding - and often a sense of
humor - to open your home to a
foreign visitor for a year.
Buy as the Jay Irwin family,
1022 Church Street, Lancaster,
are discovering, it is also an eye
opening rewarding experience.
The Irwins are hosting pretty,
18-year-old Maria Villafranca, an
American Field Service student
from Honduras As Maria sits in
the Irwin living room with her
American “Mom” and “Dad”
and her host sister Suzanne, and
talks about life in Honduras and
her experiences in this country,
she is very much like any
American teenager, except for
her accent
She is dressed in blue jeans and
has long flowing black hair She
smiles easily and often glances at
Suzanne with a quizzical look to
make sure she has understood the
question
About her experiences thus far
Maria says, “I never expected
the people to be so friendly ”
She said the greatest difference
between Honduras and the
United States is that in Honduras
life is “more leisurely” - there is
not all the hustle and bustle there
is here As an example, she said,
“We take one break in the middle
of the day ’ a ‘siesta’ for 2 or 2V Z
hours ” During this time they eat
the main meal of the day, and
rest
Honduras is located in Central
.
Maria is flanked by her host family as she Betty. Standing are (I. to r.) Ruthann, Jay
points out her home town on a map of and Suzanne.
Honduras. Seated are (I. to r.) Jay, Maria,
America and is almost as large
as Pennsylvania It has a
population of three million and its
terrain is mostly mountainous.
The climate is warmer, with the
average temperature about 75-80
degrees Maria is still waiting to
see a real accumulation of snow.
Maria’s hometown,
Tegucigalpa, D C has a
population of 200,000 and is the
capital of the country. The
primary religion is this Spanish
speaking country is Roman
Catholicism
The Irwins are learning a lot
about Honduras from Maria, but
they are also learning about our
own country Mrs. Betty Irwin
said, “You learn to look at things
with more open eyes, and in a
different perspective We have
also learned to point things out to
Maria that we don’t normally
think about ”
Jay, who is associate county
agent with Penn State Extension,
says, “The only difference since
Maria has come is that we plan
some activities that we probably
should have done before; things
that involve the total family ”
One of these activities was a trip
to our nation’s capital, one which
the whole family enjoyed
There are four of the Irwins’ six
children living at home now, and
Jay said, “You hardly know
there’s another one around.”
Their children are - Easty Ann,
23, a nurse and Lt, j.g. m the U S.
Discussing the AFS program at Hemp- Maria Villafranca and Miss Karen Jessen,
field High School are (I. to r.): Fay club advisor. Miss Jessen teaches Spanish
Klinefelter, AFS Club president, Sue Irwin, and French.
Navy, stationed in San Diego,
Calif ; Linda, 22, now Mrs.
Robert Wilhelm, Elizabethtown,
R D. l, Jaylene, 19; Suzanne, 17;
Jay, 14 and Ruthann, 12.
Betty, who is a teacher of a
visually handicapped class for
the Retarded Children Day Care
Services, Lancaster, said they
became interested in applying to
be a host family as a result of
Jay’s work with the International
Farm Youth Exchange program,
and because of hosting 4-H ex
changes from other states. She
said they enjoyed those young
people and "felt they’d like to
host a foreign student.”
Jay himself had visited the
Soviet Union, Poland, Swit
zerland, and Berlin in 1964 on a
People-to-People tour
Suzanne, a senior at Hempfield
High School who plans to major
in languages in college, said,
“I’ve learned a lot about our own
country, and have really gained a
broader outlook since Maria has
lived with us ”
Even though Mans is accepted
as a member of the family, there
are still adjustments to be made.
Betty says with a laugh, “I’ve
tempered my Irish temper a lot ”
At home, Maria has a brother,
13, Luis Enrique and a sister, 16,
Patricia. Her father is a medical
doctor and is medical director
for the New York and Honduras
Rosario Mining Company in
Honduras
Maria admits that she gets
homesick occasionally, but she
said she enjoys learning “dif
ferent ideas and seeing a dif
ferent way of living.”
Maria said the food she is
accustomed to in Honduras has
“more spices” and more things
are “home-made.” She said
homemakers do not use as many
cans and boxes of prepared foods
as we do. Her favorite American
food is brownies. In Honduras
they eat three meals a day, much
as we do in this country.
The school system in Honduras
is similar to ours in that students
may attend twelve years, plus
idndergarden. Depending on your
career plans, Maria said, you can
attend thirteen years.
Children are obligated to at
tend at least the first six years of
school, although Maria said that
in some rural sections the
parents do not believe in
education and do not send their
children to school. These parents
are not prosecuted, she said.
The school year in Honduras is
from February to November, and
the hours are from 7:00 a.m to
1130 a.m. and from 2 00 p m to
4-30 p.m. All students go home
during the siesta
Public education is completely
free to all young people in Hon
duras. Maria, however,
graduated from a private high
school. She is a member of the
senior class at Hempfield and
says she doesn’t find the courses
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