Before this week, if there was any part of me that wanted to have children soon, it is gone. I have just collected 15 wide-eyed international plebes who are even more clueless about life at the USNA than I was when I first arrived (is that even possible?!). From 6:00pm Sunday night until 1:00pm today we had various flights from 12 different countries coming between BWI, Dulles and Reagan. We gave Derek the midnight runs because he ever so politely decided to vacation in France the rest of the week. The biggest challenge during this time was that I had 2 Ensigns and a 2nd LT (the new recent graduate who has joined us, he is a Marine) all telling me information, but not each other. It was difficult to make sure all 4 of us were in the loop as well as our supervisor and the director of the office.
When I arrived bright and early this morning it was a relief to see them all finally together (minus the last 2 from Gabon who finally arrived in the afternoon). "Have you all eaten? How did you sleep? Did you have pillows? How is your mental health? Does anyone feel like they need to call home right this minute?" I fired off questions the second we were done with an admissions debrief. Flashing back to my first week in Madrid and then my first week in Salamanca, Spain- though it was an incredibly exciting time, much of it was scary as hell. My little Sarah looked like a deer in headlights when she traveled to our accommodation on her own, as much of our internationals had done. I remember wanting nothing more than to curl up in her, Amy, or Jan's arms at several times during my first week and I barely knew them at that point. I also knew that there were times I would have killed for my own bed and a hamburger.
It concerned me that a tall lanky boy from Thailand immediately shot his hand up when I asked if anyone was homesick. I arranged for him, a boy from Bangladesh, and a boy from Kazakhstan to be the first round to call home. Unfortunately we could not work out the Bangladesh country code and never made contact with his family before we had to quickly move to our next appointment. "Will I get to talk to my family before I am a Plebe?" he asked. It broke my heart. I knew this feeling too, as it was about 10 minutes after our arrival to Madrid when someone asked how to get to an internet cafe, we were all so desperate to make contact home. "Yes," I promised, "I will figure out a way." It's an international programs office for God's sake, why isn't this working!? Later during an unnecessary library brief I pulled him aside to hunt for a computer with me. The odds were just not in this kid's favor. We found 1 computer but it would not turn on, and another that did not have internet. "Can you use an iPhone?" I asked. "You found me a phone?!" he said. "No, but I think I have an idea... does anyone in your family speak English and have an email address?" Jackpot! He had an uncle with an email address and a cousin who speaks English. It took him nearly 30 minutes to send a 3 sentence email on my iPhone letting his family know he had arrived and was okay, but we did it.
This morning we gave them index cards with our phone numbers on it. An adorable Filipino called me 30 minutes ago and kindly asked if he would have bed sheets tonight. Let me just say, laundry did not have a pleasant phone call from me after they brushed it off as no big deal. I asked how she would like to go to the Philippines and sleep on a bare mattress. She replied that he would have an extra pillow tonight. I said make it two.
And now I have 9 more days of this.
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