Culture and Relationships -- Emma Shreve

When I stop and really think about the different lives that Dayana and I lead, it kind of blows my mind. I have lived in the same house my entire life, with the same parents and siblings. I went to Catholic school, where I never struggled with reading or writing, and was always understood by my teachers and peers (although I did go to speech class once). I grew up and moved on to high school, where I met a diverse group of girls, but could still voice my opinion and know that all would understand me. Dayana's life is much different. She grew up in an orphanage in Peru. She has a speech impediment, a remnant from a cleft lip, which makes it hard to understand her sometimes. Her parents adopted her a year or so ago and moved here, to Cincinnati. From what I have gathered, Dayana doesn't have any siblings, here in the States, but she still mentions her siblings in the orphanage. One of her teachers explained to me that back in Peru, the older kids were in charge of looking after the younger ones, in a sort of buddy program. When Dayana first mentioned that she had several sisters, I am guessing that she considers these other kids that she might have looked after her sisters. I may call my high school class my Ursuline sisters, but I know that I will never be as close to them as I am to my younger sister. I can't begin to imagine how hard it was for Dayana to transition from the orphanage in Peru to her home in Cincinnati but I'm sure it was really difficult. Luckily Dayana has her parents and AMIS to help her through the transition.



My sister and I at a Cartel concert for her birthday!



From what I can tell, Dayana is thriving at AMIS. It seems like she has lots of friends. One day we were going to a different room to read and she almost insisted that her friend come with us when he was waiting for his UC mentor to arrive. I felt bad telling the cute little boy to wait! AMIS really is a unique school, and the students all seem really close. All of the younger students that we interact with every week talk to each other and are friendly with everyone. This was obvious when we went outside to play. I told Dayana that we had to read a story before we could go play and that was a struggle. All of the laughter and screaming coming from the playground was distracting and I think we were both happy when we finally went to join everyone. It didn't seem like there was any division between students of different ethnicities or grade levels. Everyone was playing together and running from the multiple people that were always 'it' during a fierce game of tag. Like the reading suggests, the AMIS kids cope with immigration and the transition by making friends at school and socializing on a regular basis. At a school where all the other students are in the same boat, integrating your primary culture into a new one doesn't seem like such a daunting task..



A picture Dayana drew of her family and their house