Labor Day Weekend

“My name is Camille. Do you understand my English?”

I replied, “You speak English very well.”

“What you say encourages me much.”

The petite young woman took my hand and smiled. She arrived in the United States only three weeks earlier from half way around the world to earn her masters degree at an esteemed American university.

When our church first asked for volunteers to keep international students for the Labor Day weekend I was nervous. Camille’s warm smile quickly melted away my misgivings.

We saw things around us differently through Camille’s eyes.

“People here walk often?”

Our dog had jumped up in the window for the umpteenth time to bark at passing neighbors taking their evening stroll.

“In my country it is not good to walk outside. You have to take a bath and change your clothes when you get home. The air is dirty.”

Camille loved Graeter’s ice cream but disliked Skyline Chili. She had fun learning how to play Tantrix and Yahtzee. Fireworks on the Ohio River were “spectacular”. She enjoyed the Labor Day picnic and hiking through the woods.

Labor Day weekend 2008 I learned to appreciate things around me I take for granted and made a new friend.