Polish student's half year of hell with an American fundie family

[charlie]

Short account of an exchange student's use and abuse (turned out they only took him in so he would agree to help establish a Baptist church in Poland) at the hands of pious Christian weirdos:

"When I got out of the plane in Greensboro in the US state of North Carolina, I would never have expected my host family to welcome me at the airport, wielding a Bible, and saying, 'Child, our Lord sent you half-way around the world to bring you to us.' At that moment I just wanted to turn round and run back to the plane."

http://www.spiegel.de/international/0,1518,448350,00.html

[Jokerman]

1. He lasted longer than I would have.

I think I'd have followed the first instinct and got back on the plane.

Six months of that and I'm afraid that "shoot them all and let god sort it out" would have started to sound rational to me.

[laconicsax]

2. Obligitory scotsman fallacy post.

blah blah those people are not Christians blah blah Bible quote blah blah Christ's love blah blah. blah blah personal anecdote blah blah my pastor blah blah atheists are mean blah blah blah.

[Iggo]

4. Mmm. Mmm. Yes. So true. So true. (n/t)

[onager]

6. Perfect! Thanks!

I would only add: Jesus was a liberal blah blah

And maybe after "atheists are mean," the a-word--arrogant. In reading recent R&T posts, that seems to be one of the first words they reach for.

As I've ranted before ad nauseum--at least IMO, we non-believers take the intellectually modest position of "Show me the evidence" or "I'm not sure about the existence of Gawds." Whereas the believers are cocksure that some sort of Gawd exists, either as a real being with whom they interface (traditional Xians) or at least some vague and indefinable spirit-thingy that is always available for personal counseling (New Age Xians). I don't know why they bother with that one, since the spirit seems to conveniently echo their own thoughts and prejudices most of the time. Just as the right-wing Xians confirm their own wacky prejudices by reading the Buy-bull.

And for the usual irrelevant side note: I've also noticed that some of the most aggressive and unpleasant religious posters sign off with the word "Peace." I guess that's not surprising, since they've nominated Jesus H. Christ as "The Prince of Peace"--that modest, unassuming fellow who consigned most of us to roast for eternity, and claimed the whole world would end when he came back from the dead.

"It's all about ME...!!!" I guess! Making the fairly large assumption that Jesus existed at all, and somewhat resembled his Biblical description, I consider him about on a par with David Koresh or Rev. Jim Jones (also a liberal who fed and housed the poor, BTW). Simply one more of history's countless egotistical religious fanatics whose later followers just happened to be in the right place (Rome) at the right time (the era of Constantine).

[sarcasmo]

7. Nice, you sound just like my wife, LMFAO.

[progressoid]

3. I remember a Swedish girl staying with a Baptist minister's family in my school.

She was miserable. They were the no Rock music, no dancing, no playing cards, no nothing that is fun type.

After a couple months she also moved on to another family.

[Warpy]

5. Exchange students were monopolized by the high school

ruling class when I went to school. I didn't speak at length with one guy until the last month of school when he got away from the clique.

It turned out he was an atheist and a rabid Communist and had been going nuts thinking all Americans were the blonde Plantagenet types who never had an original thought in their lives and bought everything the revival ministers told them. He was terribly upset that he hadn't realized my own odd little clique was there, reading and thinking and planning revolution.

I think culture shock is a real problem, especially in the bible soaked south.

The Polish student didn't flee immediately because he didn't know just how bad it could be in the bible beating south.

[8 track mind]

8. welcome to my world

I was pelted with requests to go to church this sunday morning for easter services. the exchange usually goes something like this:

"So i would like to invite you and your Wife to our church this sunday for easter services"

me: "no thanks, i all ready have plans"

"Oh really, what church are you going to?"

me: "the church of my bed and pillow and the disabled alarm clock. I plan on sleeping in."

they leave me alone after that. Ah....life in Texas!

[Manifestor_of_Light]

9. I have the same problem in East Shithole, er, East Texas.

Little old ladies invite me to the Methodist church. That's where the rich people go.

And old men too. I've learned to ignore them when they say hello.

The nearest bunch of Unitarians is 60 miles away, unfortunately.

So I have no place to worship the coffeepot on Sunday mornings like a good heathen.... :D

I'm gonna have to tell them I don't believe in fairy tales any more.

[PassingFair]

10. My (now) 17 year old daughter spent 11 months in India...

She did a rotary exchange starting when
she was 15 (she turned 16 in India...)

She was with fairly strict Hindus...but
not nearly as strict as one of her friends.

Elle was originally not allowed out of the
house when she was on her period (they
CHECKED...), but after rebelling for a
few times, they finally decided to just
ignore her and let her come and go as
she pleased.

She was supposed to change host families
3 times during the exchange, but it turned
out that of about 20 exchange students, only
the THREE BOYS exchanged families, the girls
were stuck in the original placements.

My daughter's family were very open about
the fact that they had taken her only because
their precious son was on a reciprocal exchange
here in Ohio. (American students are NOT
required to have a reciprocal exchange.)

One of her friends that had been placed in
a smaller village had to sit on a plastic
chair and was banned from her kitchen during
her menses.

:crazy:

Despite the wackness, Elle would do it all
over again in a minute, she loved India and
she really bonded with the other exchange
students.

[onager]

12. Thanks for that story.

I bet she would do it all over again! What a great experience.

I didn't even know Hindus had the Menstrual Hangup, along with Islam and Xianity. I never have understood that. It's one of those weird obsessions I would have expected the human race to grow out of a few thousand years ago.

When I lived in Saudi Arabia, one of the Amercan wives on our compound had a pretty funny story about that. Tampons were not sold in Saudi Arabia, I guess because they require Touching Down There, and we all know where THAT can lead.

So when American women went to the US or Europe, they stocked up on tampons and brought them back in their luggage. To save space, they would unpack the tampons from their boxes and scatter them throughout the suitcases along with their clothes.

Now coming into Saudi Arabia, Customs searches EVERYTHING. Huge PITA. A 747 with 400 passengers lands at 3 A.M., and everybody waits in a long line while the Customs officers root thru everybody's underwear and toiletries, looking for pork, pornography, etc.

When this woman got her turn, the Customs officer pulled out a Tampax, looked at it quizzically, held it up and asked: "What is this?"

She spent a few agonizing moments trying to think of a tactful way to tell him what it was.

Meanwhile, Customs Guy is still inspecting the Tampax, probably thinking: "It looks like a fuse for a Molotov Cocktail or some other infernal device. Perhaps I have captured a terrorist! Allah will be pleased..."

The American wife finally said: "It's only for woman."

With that, the light finally dawned for Customs Guy. He turned bright red, threw the tampon back in her suitcase, slammed it shut, and said: "Go. Just GO!"

[NMMNG]

11. I would have turned back for the plane

Idiots like that don't deserve any form of audience.

[Warpy]

13. A friend of mine from the UK, traveling with a new baby,

nearly did just that when she got of the plane and discovered that we didn't have mothers and infants rooms and she was expected to nurse and change her baby in the public toilets.

It's funny how these cultural differences are usually aimed at women.